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Adam Ottke

Los Angeles, CA
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Articles from Adam Ottke

First Look: Hands-On With the Hasselblad X1D

Hasselblad is touring the country (and the world) with prototypes of the new 50-megapixel X1D camera and the two lenses launching alongside it. Priced way below any other Hasselblad on the market (and in line with Pentax’s 645Z), the X1D ushers in unparalleled portability while creating a entirely new segment: the medium format mirrorless camera.

Get 3D Videos from a Smartphone for $35, Maybe

Eye-Plug is a new, tiny external camera device that plugs into your Android phone's reversible USB-C port to produce 3D video and photo content in conjunction with your phone's built-in camera.

Hands-On With the Nikon D5: The Best All-Around Body Money Can Buy

It’s easy to be astounded by statistics such as 14 fps and ISO 3,000,000. But when you put everything that Nikon’s latest flagship body offers together, you get a machine that is the first of its kind, and that's really thanks to the combination of two features Nikon obviously pushed to new heights: autofocus, and — yes — ISO sensitivity (which has itself been a point of controve

'Lick' Series Gets Even Cuter with 'Lick Puppies'

We've covered photographer Ty Foster's "Lick" series before, but his latest creation, "Lick Puppies," takes this a step further by using only puppies and their particularly tiny tongues. Every puppy in this series is busy licking its nose, just coming up from licking some organic peanut butter — the choice lick-inducing food of the viral animal photographer. 

Save 93% on MacPhun's Creative Kit XXL Bundle

MacPhun is a popular à la carte Mac photo-editing software company that offers a variety of solutions for various editing needs. For the next week and a half, they're offering their entire suite of products for a price of $129, compared to the $2,000 that it would normally cost. Is $2,000 a little steep for all of this? Sure.

Review: Adobe Spark Puts Easy, Professional Content Creation Into Everyone’s Hands

Let me get to the point: Adobe Spark could be the company’s biggest release yet. For veteran Adobe users, it might not seem as exciting as a new Creative Cloud update; but the combination of its ease of use, ingenious functionality, and truly professional results give it the potential to aid far more people than Photoshop ever will — no, really.

Broncolor Announces Battery-Powered 400 J and 800 J Siros L Monolights, Takes on Profoto B1

Broncolor announced two battery-powered strobes today. Coming in 400-joule and 800-joule variants, offering flash durations of as little as 1/19,000s, and in a similar power option, the new Siros L strobes are clearly aimed at the 500-watt Profoto B1 with nearly identical features in all but one area, depending on what's most important to you. 

Instagram's Much-Anticipated 'Insights' Analytics Look Awesome

A number of iOS and Android apps rake in huge sums of money by promising heavy Instagram users access to a multitude of account information and analytics. It's no secret that Instagram could capitalize on this in a huge way. Naturally, they don't plan on charging for the service. Instead, they're likely counting on it to boost user interaction.

Finally -- Smartphone Lenses I Actually Want to Carry with Me

You have to be really into iPhonography if you're going to share your pocket with awkwardly bulgy lenses. Finally, we can thank BLIPS for their micro and macro lenses that are so thin, you can still slide your phone into your pocket after you literally just stick on the lenses. 

Feature Request: Body-to-Body Communication Would Be Every Event Photographer's Dream

Today, more and more cameras have wireless technologies built into the body. So far, the concentration on development for the use of these antennas has centered around image transfer and social media connectivity, posting directly to other services, etc. But that’s far from all that can be accomplished when cameras start being able to communicate with one another. 

How to Explain Why You Don't Provide Your Raw Photos

With little exception, every time you agree to provide raw images to your client, you are hurting your own brand and doing that client a disservice. Although it might be easy to feel, it may be hard to understand exactly why this is.

The Syrp Genie and Genie Mini Are Perfect for Food Photographers and More

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing Syrp's awesome, affordable, perfectly executed Genie Mini time-lapse device. However, time-lapse photography and videography barely covers the beginning of what can be done with the New Zealand company's awesome devices. The Slanted Lens' Jay P.

Syrp's Genie Mini Is the Best Time-Lapse Motion Control Device That'll Always Be With You

Helped by great design, marketing, and a superb product to boot, Syrp’s motorized time-lapse aid, the Genie, became incredibly popular with photographers. As the product that launched the company on Kickstarter three years ago, it was a premium offering, though. And sometimes, it’s useful to have something fantastic in a “light” version. Enter the Genie Mini. 

First Look at the Fujifilm X-Pro2

For those that were early on the list, B&H started shipping Fujifilm's X-Pro2 earlier this week. The review process is certainly under way, but in the meantime, here's a quick first look at the much-awaited Fujifilm X-Pro2. 

Hands On With the Samsung SSD T3, My New Favorite Portable Hard Drive

Samsung’s SSD T1 was among the first drives like it, expanding on SSD features like speed and compact size to deliver an almost business-card-sized, ultra-fast drive that was perfect for the road. More robust in an all-new enclosure, the SSD T3 is the next advancement of the T1. 

Deals on SanDisk Extreme SD Cards, Plus Half Off Lexar 2933x XQD Cards

SanDisk and Lexar each have some deals going on today. SanDisk's Extreme SD cards with transfer rates of up to 90 MB/s are available at great prices at Amazon in sizes from 16 GB to 256 GB. Meanwhile, Lexar's super fast Professional 2933x XQD cards are an astounding 50 percent off at B&H (Amazon's prices are more than double). 

G-Technology's New G-Drive Mobile USB-C Hard Drive Comes in Colors to Match Your MacBook

With any luck, USB-C will be the new standard for the next decade or more, perhaps until wired connections are a thing of the past altogether. Until then, it's today's most advanced connector, featuring theoretical speeds faster than Thunderbolt 2 and simultaneous data and display connections via daisy-chaining through a small, reversible connector.

AquaTech Brings Trustworthy Waterproof Housings to the Sub-$1000 Range

Those of us who have looked into underwater photography have all experienced the same sticker shock when it comes to underwater housings. Often well above $1,000, these housings can be more expensive than the cameras we're putting into them. Plus, for the most part, we have to get a new housing if we get a new camera.

3DR Solo Drone and Solo Gimbal Price Drops

Citing savings due to larger-scale production following an expansion into 22 countries and over 2,000 retail locations, 3D Robotics has dropped the price on its popular and well-designed Solo drone, as well as on the matching Solo gimbal.

DJI Phantom 4 Is An Entirely New Beast and Looks Like It, Too

Over the last few years, there just haven't been that many massive updates to DJI's Phantom drone lineup. The biggest was perhaps the inclusion of its own camera when it ditched the need to add a GoPro to the bundle. But just looking at today's Phantom 4 design is enough to indicate the major steps DJI took to step into an entirely new generation of autonomy.

Sigma's New Lenses: The 50-100mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art and 30mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary

Perhaps a perfect followup to Nikon's D500, Canon's 80D, and even Sony's A7-series releases, Sigma's two new lenses aren't built for full-frame coverage, but instead include a fast, Art-series portrait zoom for APS-C cameras and a fast, f/1.4 normal lens specifically designed for mirrorless cameras that is supposed to offer superb image quality at a reasonable pric