Articles from Ryan Mense

Sony cameras can be customized extensively to suit each individual user’s needs. In this video, I share my own menu settings and custom buttons for bird photography as well as the reasons behind them.

Sony has announced its most expensive G Master zoom lens to date, the FE 12-24mm f/2.8.

Panasonic’s mission was to create a Micro Four Thirds camera that would have a compact design, have the ability of easily connecting to smartphones and tablets to drop media files and start editing, and feature a robust set of creative tools to elevate photo taking and video productions at all levels. From these goals, the LUMIX G100 was born. The new camera, which will be known as the LUMIX G110 outside of North America, is aimed at hobbyists and vloggers in both key features and price, but it still comes with a few new technologies and specs never seen on any LUMIX camera before it.

In this video I will go through each setting of the Sony FE 200-600mm super-telephoto zoom lens and show you how I use them for bird photography.

One year ago today, Sony announced the FE 200-600mm super-telephoto zoom lens. I was one of the first people on the planet to use the lens before that announcement, and later in September 2019 I purchased my own copy and have used it extensively ever since.

It’s the best time of year to be a bird photographer living in Wisconsin. In this video I take you behind the scenes of what I’ve been shooting lately.

Capture One is rolling out a noteworthy free update today that greatly improves the photo editing software’s healing and cloning brush tools, plus adds another long-requested feature.

We’ve seen camera companies step up to donate money and resources towards fighting the COVID-19 outbreak, and LensCoat is also joining in and doing what they do best to help stop the spread of the infectious disease.

A couple of weeks ago I turned in my Sony a7R IV and went back to the previous generation a7R III.

In this behind-the-scenes bird photography video, I get my camera out to photograph rough-legged hawks hovering above a field like the adorable angels of death they are.

Sony has unveiled its thirty-fourth full-frame E-mount lens, the FE 20mm f/1.8 G.

One of the advantages to mirrorless cameras is the ability to see an exposure preview of the final photo while composing through the viewfinder or rear LCD screen. Tools like the histogram, focus peaking, and others can also be updated in real time and overlaid on the screen to make more informed decisions. This video, however, unwraps my favorite in-camera tool for Sony cameras.

That’s right, folks. This brand new $6,500 camera won’t make it past a single day’s worth of continued use. Is this the end for Canon?

As the DSLR era may very well be coming to an end, Canon still has a few pieces more it wants to contribute to the system it dominated for so long. We’ve been in awe of the newly released DSLR flagship EOS-1D X Mark III, and now they’ve announced the entry-level EOS Rebel T8i.

Canon full-frame mirrorless lenses have reached a new low price with the introduction of the RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM.

Some species of birds have feathers that shimmer with vivid color in the sunlight, but they can look almost black in the shade. Here’s how I work to recover these colors when photographed in shade or overcast lighting.

YouTube video suggestions can be very hit or miss as far as their relevance and quality, but they did lead me to this brand new photography channel that goes above and beyond almost everything else being published on the platform.

Outside of being physically out in the field and taking shots, we can step back and identify several key elements to what being a great bird photographer means.

In early January 2020, a mountain lion showed up in the town of Jackson, Wyoming and caused quite a stir. This rare sighting brought together many people hoping to catch a glimpse of the beautiful wild predator.

After all the rumors and much anticipation, Sony finally released their full-frame FE 35mm f/1.8 lens in the middle of 2019. I’ve had the lens since day one, and today I’m sharing my long-term review.

Want to take better bird images? Here are seven things bird photographers should always be thinking about.

To see birds with detail like you’ve never seen them before in images, it’s hard to beat this camera and lens combination.

A little over a year ago and after much success with their 150-600mm lenses, Sigma began selling an ultra-zoom 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports lens offered in Canon EF, Nikon F, and Sigma SA mounts. I went with option D and adapted it to Sony FE.

As a wildlife photographer on Instagram, your feed is likely constantly filled with amazing animal images. On the good days, this can be absolutely inspiring and you may learn a thing or two. The times when you aren’t having much luck in the field, however, an Instagram feed can be a harsh place that makes you doubt your own progress and your work.

In 2019, Sony released the well-received FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens. Although it comes with a lower price tag and a longer focal length than the FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS, the overlap in other areas can make deciding between the two a challenge.

The Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens is less than half the price of Sony’s 24-70mm f/2.8 GM. Does this lens live up to the hype?

As creators of my favorite shoulder bag for cameras, I had high hopes for HEX’s big, beautiful Cinema backpack.

In this new video from my YouTube channel, I show you the behind-the-scenes photo edit of a beautiful perched yellow warbler.

Topaz Labs software has more recently been talk of the town in the wildlife photography community, and for good reason. Just like the needs for wildlife gear can get extreme with the 500mm and 600mm uber-expensive lenses and hyper-fast cameras, the demands for software that can squeeze every bit of fine feather or fur detail out of images is equally desired. Many people, myself included, have now been turned onto Topaz DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI to achieve this.

The Sony RX10 IV bridge camera was released in October 2017 and features a 24-600mm equivalent lens with the capability of shooting up to 24 frames per second with autofocus. Pairing those kind of specs with Sony’s newer Real-time Eye AF for Animals tech makes perfect sense, and now it’s here.

If you’ve ever used Adobe Photoshop’s built-in Layer Styles tool as-is for creating drop shadows, you may have found it lacking in realism. Here’s a better way to add shadows to your product photography.

Of course that title is a tad facetious, but I truly did not expect this much functionality out of what at first seemed like a niche product.

Later this month, Panasonic will be releasing extensive firmware updates for their pro mirrorless cameras.

Today, Panasonic has announced two valuable new additions to their growing S PRO line of L-mount lenses.

A couple months ago in September 2019 I headed out to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to team up with a few other respected photographers. I had already shared my own perspective from this journey on Fstoppers, but I thought it might be interesting to take a look at everyone’s outputted content from the same trip side by side and see if there’s anything to learn from it.