Latest Gear Reviews

Since its first version, Photoshop has changed quite a lot. The functionalities it offers are greater now than ever before. But plugins are legion and for beginners it is hard to differentiate the ones that are truly useful and those that are just a waste of money. The Retouching Academy Beauty Panel has been around for a little while and was revamped very recently. I use it all the time when retouching but I get many questions about it. I am frequently asked if it is worth its price and if it makes my retouching any better. Here is my take on the panel, why I bought it, and above all, why I keep using it everyday.

The Sound Advice Workshop by MZed is one of those workshops that, until you go and attend it, you don’t realize just how important it is. The Sound Advice Tour does something I don’t know that anyone else is doing – offers up a wonderful, engaging in depth way to take from beginner to advanced audio practitioner and set you up to manage all your audio needs in a way that is informative, fun and rewarding

A little over a year ago, we were introduced to SmartAlbums from Pixellu. They helped photographers all over increase their productivity by allowing them to stop hating the process of designing albums. This year, they brought us a bigger and better product, and I got to use it first hand.

The world of fashionable photography bags isn’t unknown, but it’s not all that vast, either. As much as everyone might want to be fashionable, that desire simply isn’t as compatible with the necessary practicality we need from our gear... or is it? Can a bag look quite good while being quite practical? Or better yet, can a strict adherence to a bag’s fashion appeal aid its practicality? Is this bag even "fashionable"? The Filson McCurry Sportsman is certainly a "cool" bag. But as far as standing up to the test of practicality, we’re about to find out.

I'm not someone who is big into drones and flying cameras -- mostly because they take a lot of effort to learn how to fly. More importantly, there are typically many more things I'd rather spend my money on. Then I received an email from Antoine Balaresque, CEO of Lily Robotics, introducing me to Lily, and I threw all those reasons out the window. 

There are few things that can boost your video production more than adding a smooth camera movement. One tool that every filmmaker needs to utilize from time to time is a camera crane. Recently we had the chance to test and use the Kessler Crane Pocket Jib Traveler, and I am convinced that it is one of the most portable and easy to use camera cranes on the market today.

Just a few weeks ago, Lowepro launched it’s first grab-and-go protective and customizable quadcopter drone storage system, the DroneGuard Kit. Lowepro’s solution is an interesting one in that you can adapt it for different devices combining organization, portability, and protection using it as a stand-alone kit, or as an insert with some of their other bags. Over the last two weeks I’ve been putting this bag through its paces on the streets of Chicago, as well as the in desert and dunes of Michigan. In my full review I’ll cover the features, price, build, aesthetics, and function of the DroneGuard to let you know just how they fit the current market.

Documentary photographers, fashion photographers, businessmen, housewives, househusbands, you, the world – everyone should know the name and works of Sebastião Salgado. His work has moved millions of social workers, doctors, politicians, economists, and photographers alike. His work moves humans because it is human. This might mark the second or third film review on Fstoppers, but it’s rare and extremely fortunate that we should have the ability to engulf the pleasures of what can easily be called the most soul-entrancing art documentary in the world that is “Salt of the Earth.”

In my experience, there are two kinds of great lenses. The first is the kind that gets the job done. These lenses are technically amazing and produce extremely high-quality images. The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art is one of those lenses. It produces sharp, high-contrast images time and time again. But it doesn’t really have character — a feeling — of its own. This brings me to the second category of great lenses. Every now and again a manufacturer produces something truly special, a lens with qualities that can't be measured on an MTF chart or in lab testing. Nikon's Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G is one of those lenses.

A few months ago I got an email from Rhino Camera Gear asking if I would like to beta test their new slider. I didn't really know anything about this product and I quickly forgot about it until it showed up at our office a few days ago. I had no idea that this would be one of the most impressive products I've tested in years. 

Coming off of its previous reputation as an extreme budget brand when it came to DSLR lenses, Sigma has now had well over two years to fend off quality concerns with their restructured Global Vision lineup that began with the superb 35mm f/1.4 Art lens. Since then, Sigma’s Art-, Contemporary-, and Sport-series lenses have proven themselves better than or on par with their Nikon and Canon counterparts for far less capital; and the 24mm f/1.4 Art gives us no reason to suspect the new direction doesn’t have a clear vision to go global.

A new filtered camera app that allows groups of mobile photographers to share in a timed shootout was released for iOS last week by app developer Hipstamatic. The free app, called DSPO, creates a collaboration of images via gallery or slideshow that none of the contributors can view until the session expires. But in a mobile photography world ruled by Instagram, Snapchat, and VSCO Cam, does DSPO stand a chance?

There are three things in life that photographers will clear their schedules for: Apple announcements, Nikon/Canon late-night pre-orders for new flagship bodies, and Adobe product releases. So clear your schedules, guys and gals; because Adobe’s Lightroom 6 is here with more speed (FINALLY!), more features, and rich mobile integration.

As mentioned in my previous article reviewing “Street Photography: The Art of Capturing the Candid Moment” by Gordon Lewis, the digital photography book publisher Rocky Nook has recently released some new titles that I was eager to check out. In this article, I take a look at “The Art, Science, and Craft of Great Landscape Photography” by Glenn Randall which offers an interesting take on the classic genre. In addition to the review, we are giving away two copies of this book to two lucky Fstoppers readers.

Photography book publisher Rocky Nook recently released several new titles which join their now expansive library of topics. I checked out two of these new books, and in this article I review “Street Photography: The Art of Capturing the Candid Moment” by Gordon Lewis. In addition to the review, we are giving away two free copies of “Street Photography” to two lucky readers.

The popular Mac photography software company, Macphun, released a new application for the Mac that promises incredible noise reduction processing. Noiseless comes in regular and Pro versions, the latter of which include increased capabilities like RAW processing and included plug-in support for your other editing applications and both of which provide what is truly some of the best noise reduction available.

If you're a Mac user, stop what you're doing and download this. I'm serious. Digital asset management (DAM) isn't everyone's favorite topic but it's an incredibly important part of any professional's workflow. But when things go south, you need to have a recovery plan — that's where PhotoRec, the free text-based app by CG Security, comes in.

If you’re a professional in the media industry and a Mac user, you’ve undoubtedly heard of and likely love G-Technology’s storage solutions (not that PC users have a reason not to, though). While G-Tech has largely been typecast an in-studio brand (with the LaCie Rugged drives taking a bulk of the on-the-road abuse), G-Tech’s newest offerings include their ATC lineup that helps close the gap, bringing them into the “all-terrain” hard drive space.

In September 2014, Zeiss announced their new Loxia line of manual-focus lenses for Sony’s full-frame E-mount cameras. Ever since covering the announcement, I’ve wanted to try out these stylish lenses, namely the Zeiss Loxia 2/35 because of its extended usefulness in landscape photography. I was very much interested in seeing how a modern Zeiss manual-focus lens designed for a technologically-advanced mirrorless camera would fare, and in the end I was left blown away by the results.

There are few companies and applications that give you constant updates and are constantly pushing the limits, but VSCO definitely ranks towards the top of them. Whether it's introducing new actions and presets for VSCO desktop or presets on VSCO Cam, they're as they like to call it, always moving forward. What they’ve done with the new Alchemy Collection for VSCO Cam doesn’t fall short.

Pictured above is the newest addition to the Lensbaby lens family. However, this classic styled glass isn’t just another portrait lens... and how could it be coming from the Lensbaby camp? The Velvet 56 is a solid, beautiful piece of camera hardware with more than one trick up its sleeve.

The extreme wide-angle focal length is an area that I had long ignored. When I was first starting out, I just wasn’t interested in it. I was interested in people – and that meant 85mm f/1.4, 105mm, 135mm, and 200mm lenses with both great compression and bokeh. Leave it Tamron to bring me back to the wide side with the world’s first ultra-wide-angle zoom with vibration control: the Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD.

If you haven't heard of the app Phhhoto you're certainly not alone. Phhhoto is a mobile GIF/cinemagraph/image sequence creating and sharing platform that was released last year on iOS and will be coming to Android in the future. As of this week it now has over a million registered users and is really starting to take the world by storm. I'll admit I didn't really take it seriously myself until I saw Jeremy Cowart post a couple Phhhotos. After having messed around with it for the last week I can honestly say it has me pretty excited. I'm on Phhhoto and here's why you should be too.

Cloud Spot was created by full-time photographers who were tired of the available options for photo delivery. Nothing before truly placed the photographer's brand first and cut precious time off of their workflow. The goal was to beautifully display images in a branded and modern gallery, be super fast and easy for the photographer to share, and allow clients to easily download images sent directly in an email and/or in the galleries. After using Cloud Spot for the past few months, I can say that they've succeeded.

Two weeks ago we saw Tony Northrup comparing the Canon and Yongnuo 50mm 1.8 lenses with his thorough video. Now Kai of DigitalRevTV has decided to bring you his own version of this same comparison. In typical Kai fashion, his presentation is perhaps more humorous than scientific, but in between the jokes are some real kernels of truth. Take a look at how his analysis compares with Tony's and whether the Yongnuo copy is really worth the savings.