Fstoppers Gear Reviews

For my annual trip to Lofoten, I had the opportunity to shoot with the Fujifilm GFX 100. Prior to the trip, I had just a few weeks to get acquainted with the camera. Here are my thoughts on this 102-megapixel camera for landscape photography.

It's always best to get it right in camera, but sometimes, there are cases where subtle things may go unnoticed but become visible later during the retouching process. Having the right set of tools is crucial.

You’ve heard of hand-painted backdrops, and you’ve probably heard of digital backdrops, but The Backdrop Studio is offering something different: backdrops that look like pieces of art all by themselves.

With the long-awaited release of the Fujifilm X100V — the fifth generation of the X100 series — it is fair to say that this is now a pretty mature camera system. The question is whether the improvement brought with this latest iteration makes the X100V the perfect camera for travel, documentary, and street photographers.

If you're looking for a lens that's super sharp, incredibly versatile, remarkably cheap, and able to cover almost every scenario you want from a walk-around lens, then this 35-150mm lens from Tamron is perfect. These images testify to that.

Elinchrom has always been known for its superb light modifiers. But the strobes designed by the Swiss flash manufacturer are just as good. Now marks a new direction for the brand with the introduction of the ELC 125 and ELC 500.

During the last photo trip I hosted at Lofoten, I used the new Haida M10 filter system together with their new filters. Although I was somewhat skeptical at first, I found it to be a really nice system that worked very well under cold conditions. This is my review.

As a commercial photographer who tethers at every shoot, I’ve always relied on Tether Tools cords as part of my workflow. So, I was excited to hear that they had launched a wireless offering and wanted to put the new Air Direct through the paces.

Have you ever wanted to shoot medium format but don’t know where to start? Have you been wanting to try shooting film but 35mm doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough? The RB is here to help.

Olympus has started 2020 positively with the announcement of two cameras and a lens. I had the chance to test-drive the pro camera in Costa Rica to give you a full rundown.

For any landscape photographer, the design of the filter holders we use can have such a significant effect on our workflow. This Vietnamese made carbon fiber filter holder might just be the simplest and lightest one yet.

Venus Optics Laowa have made a name for themselves by producing unique lenses for all the major camera systems. From the 24mm f/14 probe lens to their series of Zero-D lenses, Laowa have produced excellent optics at reasonable prices. Today's focus is on the exact opposite of the spectrum from their Zero-D series - the 4mm f/2.8 Circular Fisheye.

It seems to me that releasing a good lens these days isn't enough. There has to be some edge that the marketing department can use. Hasselblad recently released a tiny medium format lens for the X1D series of cameras, and I had a chance to test it out.

I've used a ton of different microphones over the years, but Rode's latest creations are two of the cheapest and feature-rich mics I've ever used.

Wireless video transmitters have always been extremely expensive, until now.

Elinchrom focus has mostly been on light shapers and strobes ever since they've existed. However, the ELM8 they released last year may be a hint they are serious about getting into continuous light. After four months of use, here's my opinion on the Elinchrom ELM8.

Ever wished your laptop had a bit more workspace? The Asus Zenbook Duo has a secondary display right on the main panel that allows for increased productivity and multitasking.

I recently got the chance to use the new Hasselblad X1D II for a week. It was my first experience with medium format and required a bit of adapting on a learning curve. Here are my first impressions about the body, design, lenses, and general usability of the camera.

Finding and licensing music: it has got to be one of those painful tasks for anyone who creates videos or slideshows for clients, which is why we are reviewing a new player in town, Audiio.

Photolab 3.1 from DXO has been out a couple of months now, and early looks from photographers have been positive. It's a complete raw editor and has many features photographers will expect to see and adds some very worthwhile enhancements that will highly interest editors at every skill level.

I've been looking at photo apps for the iPhone since the phone was first released in 2007. From the start, it was pretty clear Apple wasn't getting the most out of their own camera with the built-in app, and third parties rushed in. If you wanted to take serious photos, many of the apps were wanting, offering stickers and other features most pros would disdain. But not this app.

With smaller mirrorless cameras becoming more popular for traveling photographers, smaller and lighter filter systems are becoming the appropriate choice for many more people. While 75mm square filters are nothing new, there are some great options being made for them, and today, we'll take a look at Haida's new M7 Filter Holder kit.

Insta360’s ONE X has been a huge success for them; however, in the wake of the GoPro Hero 8, it’s about time they meet new demands. The GoPro Hero 8 and GoPro MAX 360 cameras are the flagships to beat: Insta360 is trying to take on both at once, for the same price as one.

Fisheye lenses are always nice to have in your bag. Though they may not always be applicable, especially for professional work, having a nice fisheye lens adds a certain spice to your photos.

When I needed a 360-degree camera for my real estate photography, I was looking for the Ricoh Theta Z1. I got the new GoPro MAX 360 instead, because the Ricoh was not available at that time. Now, I want to share my thoughts on this 360-degree action camera.

Opinions on which camera backpack a photographer should use are probably only second to which camera system they should use. With so many brands of packs out there, and not to mention multiple versions by each of the manufactures, it can be challenging to pick a backpack. To help the readers of Fstoppers, I took a look at four backpacks to see how they stack up.

Back in 2018 Nikon released the Coolpix P1000, a super zoom bridge camera with an optical zoom of 125 times. No other camera has this optical zoom range. It could be an alternative for all those part time wildlife shooters. Or perhaps not?

A video recently posted by COOPH, “5 Photo Hacks with Your Umbrella,” provides photographers creative inspiration for a tool that is typically seen as single purpose. Chances are, you will finish it feeling inspired.

There are a plethora of 360 cameras that can do a fine job creating immersive content for under $500. But when you need to move from “do a fine job” to “do a really awesome job,” there you’ll find the Insta360 Pro 2, waiting for you.

Today there are a lot of photo enthusiasts that only use a smartphone. It is easy for a lot of people, placing content directly online. Wouldn’t it be great of there was a way to have a flash light that would work seamless with a smartphone? Profoto has the C1 and C1 Plus flash for that.

With dual Thunderbolt 3 ports, eight drive bays, and an optional SSD acceleration bay, Drobo’s 8D is its fastest storage array yet. But the benefits of Drobo aren’t necessarily in speed, but instead in its user-friendly BeyondRAID system that takes the complexity out of managing your RAID setup. If you don’t like thinking about your backup but like to trust it’s going to work for you at all times, this might be the way to go.

Fast and reliable portable storage is a must-have for today's mobile creatives, and the big players in the space have been producing increasingly compact and speedy drives every year. In today's review, we'll be taking a look at Caldigit's new Tuff Nano portable drive.

For those of you who haven't heard of Hasselblad, they were one of the first cameras used to shoot from space and are known today to be one of the top medium format companies around. With a recent release of their X1D II and a unique digital back for their v-system, what is it like to shoot with one of these cameras?

Experienced night sky shooters know that some of the most challenging targets are meteors. While meteor showers, which happen several times a year, will make capturing the elusive meteors easier because there are more of them, you can still point a camera to the sky with a 30 minute exposure and get nothing. Then, suddenly, a meteor can appear where you weren't pointing.

Earlier this year, I wrote a review of the CamRanger Mini. As I mentioned in my article, I was looking for a way to remotely trigger my camera when I can't be located in a particular area for the action sports I shoot. I found the CamRanger Mini was a terrific device for remotely controlling a camera, but for me, I needed a little faster reaction time. So, now that the CamRanger2 has been released, will it satisfy my demanding needs?

The Mavic Mini is one of the smallest HD drones on the market right now, and it actually performs well. If you are looking to get into drones, but don't want to break the bank, this could be what you are looking for.

I’ve shot this camera in a studio, taken it on long hikes, shot it in a blizzard, and taken it out into the dessert. I’ve used and abused it and it’s still going.

I reviewed the newly revived Nik Collection in June. It was nice to have the collection back, after Google bought it and then let it sit idle. Now it's been sold to DXO, and it's compatible with the latest PC and Mac operating systems.

Two months since its release, the Sony a7R IV has been getting quite a wonderful acceptance from photographers across all fields of photography, and that’s no surprise. For this review, let’s take a look at how the camera performs based on the needs of a landscape and travel photographer.

Today, I’ll offer you my thoughts on the new Fujfilm GF 50mm f/3.5 R LM WR medium format lens.

The Fujinon 200mm f/2.0 is a beast of a lens designed mostly for sports and wildlife, but as a portrait shooter I wanted to see how it stacked up.

Peak Design is responsible for running some of the most successful Kickstarter projects to date. The company has now launched updates to its existing series of popular Everyday bags while adding a few new ones into the mix. This time, they’re even skipping Kickstarter: everything ships today.

Nowadays, post processing images is becoming an entirely new discipline on its own. Every photographer needs a reliable machine to work on.

The Masters of Photography courses are a series of instructional videos, each focusing on the work and style of a specific photographer who is considered a master in their field. Having tried both the Joel Meyeorwitz and Albert Watson courses, I had to give the third – Steve McCurry – a go. Here’s what I thought about the experience and the lessons learned.

You might think 40mm sounds like a strange focal length. I know I did. But this lens surprised me in all the best ways.

Photographers and videographers are working on the go and traveling more and more, and their needs for advanced data storage devices are growing. The Gnarbox 2.0 SSD seeks to fill those needs while housing those capabilities in a rugged device made to stand up to the elements. Check out our review of this powerful device.

For people that want to connect their cameras to their smartphones for control it can be a nasty bug ridden adventure. If you look at apps designed to connect for Nikon, Canon, and Sony cameras you'll see reviews that go from faint praise to horrible.

There is no getting away from it: Fujifilm's decision to implement a “hidden LCD” on their brand new Fujifilm X-Pro3 camera was always going make this a divisive camera. The question is: has Fujifilm created such a niche camera as to make it unusable? After using the camera extensively for the past couple of weeks, here is my purely personal take on this very personal camera.

With the current generation of the GoPro Hero 7 at $329USD and the upcoming HERO8 looking to be even more, a lot of us that are more budget minded may be looking for an alternative, and the Akaso V50 Elite may just be that alternative.

One of the most useful tools I've been using for the last year has been the Infinite Color Panel. This is my most used add-on in Photoshop and it consistently produces fantastic results. Recently a new tool was released called Infinite Texture Panel and I wanted to see what it was all about.