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CS Muncy
New York, NY
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Articles written by CS Muncy

We Review The Thypoch Simera 35mm f/1.4 Lens
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For the last few weeks, I've been carrying around the new Thypoch Simera 35mm f/1.4 M mount lens. When I test new gear, I try to incorporate it into my everyday carry kit and use it on actual assignments and stories to see how it performs under real-world conditions. Sometimes, a piece of kit that looks great or has fantastic specs underperforms in the field; other times, you get something that exceeds expectations.

Testing the Megadap ETZ 21 Pro Lens Adapter in the Field
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I’ve used more than a few camera systems over my career. In the abstract, this can be a positive thing: diversity of equipment means you’ve got a lot of different ways to capture an image or tell a story, but more practically, this means I’ve got a lot of gear that doesn’t typically communicate well with each other. Sooner or later, I find preference in one system over the other, meaning a fair amount of kit ends up collecting dust.

We Review the Reflx Lab Light Meter
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A long time ago, I picked up my first Leica, a beater of an M4 that had been collecting dust and mold at the bottom of an old leather camera bag in a retired photographer's closet. With it came a number of oddities: close-up adapters, table tripods, and the like. But perhaps most interestingly, it came with an old Leica MC light meter.

Funleader x Brightin Star XSLIM-M Lens Review
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Over the past few years, there has been a remarkable rise in M and LTM lens manufacturers, throwing in with Leica and Voigtlander in an attempt to carve out some space of their own. Many of these lenses lean towards the more affordable side of the marketplace, with TTArtisan and 7Artisan joined by revived "classics" like Meyer-Optik Görlitz or handmade, artisanal lenses like MS-Optics.

Hands on With LomoChrome 92 Film
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Lomography recently announced the release of a new film, LomoChrome 92, a 400 ISO C-41 process color negative stock. The film is touted as a throwback to older stocks, with vibrant colors and a more noticeable grain structure.

New Panoramic 35mm Camera from Jeff Bridges and SilvergrainClassics in the Works
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I'm a sucker for panoramic cameras. Over the last decade, I've shot on my share, having spent more than I should have on a collection of various bodies. They've followed me to space shuttle launches, riots, out the back of aircraft, and to the White House. But as the world shifted to digital, the number of functional panoramic film cameras out there in the wild has dwindled, driving the prices through the roof.

Covering the Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge
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I’ve been covering the Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge like clockwork for well over a decade now, and I think it’s fair to say that I’ve picked up a few useful habits along the way. For those unfamiliar with the event, imagine several hundred folks in various stages of near-nudity packed into a corner of the beach. It’s typically rather cold - though some years have been colder than others - and everyone’s working themselves up into a fevered lather. In this excitement, a drum team forms up, creating a corridor from the top of the beach to the ocean. As the sound of those instruments gets louder and faster and more aggressive, the signal is sounded and the mob stampedes towards the Atlantic.

We Review the Lomo Apparat: Lo-fi, Wide Angle
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The popularity of toy cameras has waxed and waned over the decades. The novelty factor for plastic cameras like the Diana and the Holga is often in friction with the dependability and overall image quality, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In an age of corner-to-corner perfection, the stray light leak or vignette can provide shooters with a way to stand out from the crowd.

Field Review of the Godox Junior Retro-Inspired Flash
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Let me rewind the clock by a decade: it’s the tail end of 2012, and the NYPD was in the process of clearing out Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. Over the last year, Occupy Wall Street had been picking up steam, with an encampment filling the better part of the park and protests regularly spilling out into the streets.

We Review the Megadap MTZ11 Leica to Nikon Z Autofocus Adapter
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A few years ago, a small Hong Kong-based company called Megadap raised some eyebrows when they announced their newest product, the MTZ11, which allowed Leica M mount lenses (along with a host of other manual-focus mounts when used with adapters) to be used with the Nikon Z body with autofocus.

Searching for the Perfect Panoramic Camera
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A few years back, I managed to find a beater of a Hasselblad XPan for a song. I've tried to find a shooting style that would help me stand out from the crowd, and the panoramic format appealed to me. I didn't realize it at the time, but this purchase sent me down a rather obsessive path, trying to find the best panoramic cameras for news and editorial work.

Using the TTArtisan 28mm f/5.6 Lens in the Field
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Whenever I'm on assignment, I'll typically bring a film camera along with me. For breaking news work, they're not particularly useful; no editor in their right mind is going to wait for me to return home, develop, process, edit, and upload my film frames, no matter how good the final product might be. However, this lens has made me rethink my process a bit.

Light Lens Lab Hints at Prototype for Replica Leica Standard
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I recently noticed something interesting while looking through the Leica Classifieds page on Facebook. One of the distributors of Light Lens Lab posted an image for some upcoming products, including what appears to be an Abrahamson-style rapid winder and, more significantly, a Leica Standard-style camera.

Fstoppers Reviews the GIM 19” 48W Ring Light
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Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve used quite a few different types of ring lights for my portrait and product work. Each had its own particular benefits and drawbacks. Nothing was ever quite “perfect,” but most worked well enough in their given role. This is my review of the very affordable GIM 19” 48W Ring Light.

Recognizing and Managing Stress and Trauma as a Photographer
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No matter how long you’ve been shooting, there’s always been a kind of base level of stress that hangs in the background for every photographer, just out of sight. It’s one of those things that’s always there, even if you don’t notice it.