Popular Gear Reviews

The Leica M-series has long been the standard for rangefinder photography -- or so I've heard. Since the Leica M9 is a rangefinder, we know it's also mirrorless. And thus, this will be the introduction of the camera to 'look up to' throughout this month's reviews. If you're interested in a mirrorless system, despite whether or not this fits your idea of what's possible, I highly recommend you read on, as there are some great introductory explanations here.

In an attempt to create the best camera review video the interweb has ever seen, FCTN (Fiction) put the Phantom Miro up against Gallagher, 80's icon and nemesis to watermelons the world over. There's enough 80's power, shirtless old men, whacky hair, glitter and splattering in this video that some of you may confuse this for a Richard Simon's workout tape. But be certain, Phantom Miro + Gallagher = you're all going to watch this, love it and share it.

With just under a week left for our Blackmagic Cinema Camera giveaway here at Fstoppers, we figured this would be a great opportunity to show you how impressive this camera is in comparison to the Canon 5D Mark III. This video, produced by One River Media, really shows how well the Blackmagic performs in every aspect. With 13 stops of dynamic range along with many of its other features, the difference is quite apparent in this video.

This past week we have seen a lot of gear come out, including a brand new outdoorsman-style bag in the Lowepro Rover Pro series. We got our hands on both versions of the bag, the 35L and the larger 45L and sent Mike Kelley and Mike Wilkinson off on separate excursions to put the bag to the test. Mike Kelley reviewed the 45L, while Mike Wilkinson reviewed the 35L.

John Dooley from the Leica Akademie Mayfair demonstrates all of the cool features you knew about, as well as those that you didn't, in this six minute hands-on review with the new M. I have to say that it looks like an incredible piece of craftsmanship and technology, and the amount of power that this small rangefinder packs is really quite something.

The new Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II is supposed to be in stock on September 13th, but YouTube user ThatNikonGuy (kind of ironic) already got his hands on one and did a comparison review between the new 24-70 and the old 24-70.

About a month ago, you might recall my bitter disappointment with Canon’s new 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens. Aside from being light, it presented very little else that I could see as a positive. So my search for a great pancake lens continued, eventually leading me to the Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f/2 SL II Aspherical lens.

Even as a self-admitted prime lens lover, I can’t deny the allure of a telephoto zoom lens. A couple of my personal favorite tele-zoom lenses include the 24-70mm and the 24-105mm from Canon, which are touted by many as capable of "doing it all" if necessary. A bold statement, but you wouldn't find me arguing. But what other options are there? Though it may not be as recognizable, there certainly is a lot to love in Sigma’s 50-150mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM APO Lens.

Specialized lenses are tricky things. Since they are built for a set of specific purposes in mind, they really need to follow through on that small list of tasks lest they be discarded as an unnecessary expenditure. That is a lot of pressure to make an outstanding lens, so how did Sigma fare with their new 180mm f/2.8 macro? Is it a good addition to your lens collection?

If you are into studio lighting at all you have probably heard about the D1 Monolight by Profoto. These lights are known for their size, flash consistency, and of course the wireless Air Remote system. In this video I'll take you through each of my favorite and least favorite features of this flash. If you are on the fence you may want to try renting these lights first.

The Sony NEX FS700 is probably one of the most anticipated video camera releases of the year, and with a price point of $8,000 it's not very hard to see why. Legendary Cinematographer, Philip Bloom, recently got his hands on a pre-production version of the Sony NEX FS700 for review.

If you’re a regular user of small flashes, you know how overwhelming it can be when it comes time to purchase modifiers for your lights. One of the more popular systems is David Honl’s line of accessories, based around his Speed Strap concept. I’ve reviewed and tested every piece in the line, and I’ve got all the info you could possibly want.

There is no doubt that Nikon and Canon are putting a lot of effort in creating better video features in their flagship DSLR cameras. One of the most talked about new features has been Nikon's clean, uncompressed 1080p output from the camera's HDMI connector. Both the Nikon D800 and Nikon D4 DSLR cameras allow for this feature, but we've wondered just how useful are these new uncompressed files? We decided to test the new Atomos Ninja 1080p external recorder to see if these 12x larger files gave us better image quality for our own video projects.