Fstoppers Gear Reviews

In depth expert reviews and comparisons of the latest cameras, lenses, software, and other technology we as creative professionals rely on.
Fstoppers Reviews The Polaroid ZIP Instant Photoprinter

If you’re anything like me, you love to print your photos. The Polaroid ZIP is an inkless photo printer that is ultra portable and easily fits inside your pocket, but is it really worth the price it's selling for?

Medium Format Quality From a Full-Frame Mirrorless: Fstoppers Reviews the Leica Sl (Typ 601)

In late 2015 the luxury camera company Leica released the Leica SL (Type 601) a full-frame mirrorless camera that came packed with top of the line features ready to compete with Canon and Nikon’s flagship DSLRs. Roughly two years later, and with several new advancements in camera offerings, how does the Leica perform? Can it still compete with other flagship models?

Fstoppers Review the Infinite Color Panel

There is no shortage of Photoshop actions around the internet these days. Color grading images to having a unique look can be accomplished with infinite possibilities, however, Pratik Naik recently announced the Infinite Color Panel that rethinks the creative process.

Is This the Only Camera Lens You'll Ever Need? Fstoppers Reviews the Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD

With recent advances in third-party lens tech and glass quality, Tamron’s new 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD superzoom lens with its small form factor and incredible versatility just might be the best travel and walk around lens for APS-C cameras to date. With a price of $650, this could easily replace two or even three lenses for some users. But who exactly is this lens for?

XP Pen Artist 16 Pro Review

Graphics tablets are standard fare in a photographer’s arsenal of retouching tools, but could a pen display make retouching even easier?

Fstoppers Reviews the X-Rite i1Studio Color Management Solution

Color calibration is a necessary step in getting the very best results in your photography, yet many photographers avoid it altogether, leaving the final color edits to their printing lab, and basically turning over the outcome of an entire session to a complete stranger who knows nothing about your editing style or desired end result.

Rugged and Powerful: Fstoppers Reviews the Elinchrom ELB 1200

The Elinchrom ELB 1200 is the almost perfect battery pack for any photographer who shoots with flash. Powerful but not too cumbersome to carry, it has a lot of features to seduce you! Find out through this review if it has a place in your kit or not.

Fstoppers Reviews the Ultra-Portable Western Digital My Passport SSD

Western Digital’s 1 TB My Passport SSD is the latest in a line of ultra-compact, portable solid-state drives that have come out over the last few years. My personal favorite (at least until this point) has been the Samsung T5 SSD, which I reviewed earlier this year. But Western Digital’s entry in this space is very worth looking into.

Fstoppers Reviews RhinoShield 0.6X HD Wide-Angle Lens for the iPhone

Smartphone photography is fast becoming a significant genre within the industry. Many professionals actually use their smartphones for commercial purposes and for good reason. The portability and connectivity many smartphones offer, give it a great advantage in many scenarios.

Fstoppers Reviews Color Cone by Picture Instruments

Color Cone boldly positions itself as a powerful but easy to use tool to augment any color grading workflow. Is Color Cone the next great addition to your post-processing ritual or just another app that you will purchase and never use again?

Fstoppers Reviews the Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D for Fujifilm X

Now that the Fujifilm X system is more mature, plenty of lenses are available not only from Fujifilm themselves but third-party manufacturers are also starting to provide quality options. One such company that has just released it’s first native Fujifilm X mount offering is Venus Optics with their ultra-wide Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D.

Fstoppers Reviews The Steadicam Air 25 Gas Assisted Monopod

Has the photo industry neglected one important feature when designing monopods over the last several decades? Steadicam seems to be addressing an overlooked feature with the recently released Steadicam Air 25 that active photographers may find quite helpful.

Fstoppers Reviews the Western Digital My Passport Wireless SSD Portable Hard Drive

Portable hard drives are no longer just boxes that let you carry large amounts of data on the go. They now aim to be hubs around which your mobile life is centered, offering card ingestion and backup, device charging, wireless access, streaming, and more. Western Digital recently upgraded their My Passport Wireless line with an SSD version. Check out our review!

Is The Tamron 16-300mm The Best Walk Around Lens For APS-C Cameras?

If you own a DSLR camera it means you take your photography relatively seriously. And that means you might be looking at adding to your kit lenses. But if you don’t have the budget, what’s the best walk around lens that will cover you in almost any situation?

Fstoppers Reviews the Kodak Scanza Digital Film Scanner

Shooting film is wonderful. Shooting film can be immeasurably rewarding. However, no matter how fun film is to shoot, there are some tradeoffs in the convenience department. We have to acknowledge that we live in a digital world. Most people need a way to get their analog images into a digital format.

Are Fluidstance Balance Boards a Good Way to Keep Photographers Healthy?

Photographers sit for so long during the day — an average of ten hours for the photographers I interviewed — that it's affecting their health in potentially disastrous ways. In this review, I'd like to help you decide whether adding a Fluidstance balance board to your office could provide a valuable way to protect your health.

Fstoppers Reviews the Fujifilm X-H1 High-End Mirrorless Camera

Fujifilm has once again revolutionized the X-series with its latest release, the Fujifilm X-H1. Since its humble beginnings with the original X100 and X-Pro1, Fuji has taken aim at the professional content creators market. The quality of still images coming from Fujifilm X cameras has always been spectacular, but their video capabilities have always lagged behind offerings from other manufacturers. This is where the Fujifilm X-H1 comes in, but it’s not only video that sets it apart.

Crazy Wide, Crazy Fast: Fstoppers Reviews the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

Every once in a while, a lens comes along that truly breaks new ground for one reason or another. Such is the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art, which has an aperture over a stop faster than its competitors and is the fastest full-frame lens under 20mm. Of course, extreme lenses often have compromises of some sort, so how does this one perform? In short, extremely well. Check out our full review.

Auto-Detect Copyright Infringements: Putting Imatag to the Test

Late last year, Imatag announced a new means for photographers and image-makers to protect their work: their service allows customers to embed an invisible watermark which is then tracked on the web, alerting the copyright owner each time that the image is published online. I put their service to the test.

Fstoppers Review AND CO's Free Business Management Tool

These days you can find web-based invoicing and business management tools that are quite powerful, yet cost a monthly usage fee. The one I found used to have a $20 monthly fee, but got bought by Fiverr and is now free to use as you wish.

Fstoppers Reviews The Elinchrom ELB 500 TTL

When I first started shooting flash, I would lug my big studio lights and battery packs from location to location. But after a while, this became such a hassle that I stopped doing it. I instead settled for using a hot shoe flash or just shooting with no flash at all. But this may change now that Elinchrom has the new ELB 500 TTL. Not only does this light offer a significant increase in power compared to a traditional hot shoe flash, but it also does it with a much smaller package than standard studio lights while maintaining the benefits of TTL and HSS.

Review of Cinebags Lens Smuggler Camera Bag

Are you a traveling gear junky with a penchant for multiple lens lengths and a fear of failing camera bodies? The Lens Smuggler by Cinebags covers most of these bases, in a bag that you can smuggle onto most airplanes, provided your back - and budget - can handle it.

Is This The Ultimate Portable LED Light?

Light. We see it all around us as billions of photons pass right by us, bouncing against objects like "Punch-Me-Clowns." As photographers, we're obsessed and spend our lives figuring out how to manipulate them, and it could be an exhausting task to pursue, but that's about to change.

The Ultimate Camera Carrying System?

If RoboCop were a photographer, what kind of camera carrying system would he use? A simple shoulder strap? No way. Some kind of belt holster? Hmm, getting warmer. The Cotton Carrier Systems G3 Camera Harness? Ding ding ding!

Fstoppers Reviews the Fujifilm GF 110mm f/2 R

Fujifilm set the bar for APS-C portrait lenses with their phenomenal XF 56mm f/1.2 a few years back and they have done the same for digital medium format with the GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR. The GFX system is an exceptional fit for those shooting high-end portraiture and the GF 110mm f/2 is quite possibly the perfect portrait lens for this application.

The Sensel Morph Tablet: The Best Accessory for Premiere Pro

Making videos on Premiere Pro using just my mouse has been getting really old really fast. Keyboard shortcuts are a way to make the whole process a little less monotonous, but it's still not perfect. Recently, however, I've been testing the Sensel Morph tablet and I think I've found the best thing for Premiere Pro.