Constructing your own lens can seem like an impossible task. When you look at the amount of engineering in modern lenses, how can you possibly do it yourself? Well, you might not get quite the clarity of super high end lenses, but making your own is definitely doable. These days, you can even 3D print a lens, or a complete camera. This video, though, by photographer Randy Snook, takes things down to the bare basics....

When it comes to buying lenses, you often get what you pay for, but is there a certain point where throwing more money at them doesn’t bring you any real benefit? In this video, Freddie Wong of RocketJump Film School compares some inexpensive Canon EF Primes ranging up to about $500 with equivalent focal length $5,000 RED Cine Lenses and Zeiss Compact Primes and some $15,000 Zeiss Ultra Primes in an attempt to answer this question....

A pair of white papers have been released by Canon exploring the new Canon 1DX Mark III DSLR. The two white papers cover its stills and video capabilities and come in at 59 and 21 pages long respectively. They go into a lot of detail about the overall performance, burst rates, autofocus, metering and flash, image quality, full-frame 4K, 5.5K RAW, the codecs used and more. The stills white paper is particularly interesting because it covers some of Canon’s SLR highlights throughout the years going all the way back to the introduction 1971’s Canon F-1 system, which also debuted the Canon FD lens mount....

It probably isn’t what people were expecting when Canon recently announced they were focusing on mirrorless. And it almost certainly isn’t the camera recently rumoured to be out testing with pro photographers. But Canon has announced their first full frame mirrorless camera. The C700 FF cinema camera, that is. Yeah, ok, so all cinema cameras are mirrorless, really, but this one contains a 5.9K, relatively huge (compared to Super 35mm) full frame 35mm sensor....

Here is something to get your Saturday night going. nokishita-camera.com, a site that is usually pretty reliable, just shared what they say are the full frame mirrorless Canon EOS R photos and specs: We already knew that Canon was planning to kick this camera off on Sep 5th, but looks like no camera goes unleaked… According to Google Translate, the camera will boast a 30.3 Million Pixels Full Size CMOS sensor with a Dual AF autofocus system....

This is pretty odd, but also kind of cool. Canon has patented (through no fewer than five separate patents) a strange DJI Osmo-like gimbal with a built-in camera that actually has interchangeable lenses and a hotshoe on top. What makes it odd, though, is that it doesn’t really seem to be quite like any gimbals we’ve seen before. For a start, there doesn’t appear to be a way to actually balance the lens horizontally for tilting....

Canon has just launched a new app that helps you select the best among all those phone snaps. Like some attempts before it, Canon is relying on AI which should help ditch the “bad” photos and keep the “good” ones. But can AI really recognize what’s worth keeping and what should be discarded? Let’s try to find out. The app is appropriately called Photo Culling and it takes four key factors into consideration: sharpness, noise, emotion, and closed eyes....

Canon R5 has proven to be an amazing camera. But sadly, it has also proven to have overheating issues. In one of his previous videos, Dan Watson used the R5 side by side with the Sony a7S, and overheating was only one of the aspects he compared. In his latest video, he has addressed this problem specifically. So, when the Canon R5 and the Sony a7S shoot side by side, which one will overheat faster?...

It was only February when it was announced that Fujifilm would be acquiring American-owned Xerox in a $6.1 billion deal. It seems that now, though, that deal is not going to happen, thanks to a couple of “activist investors”, reports the BBC. Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason own, between them, 15% of Xerox and had opposed the deal. They say it undervalued the company and trouble has been brewing ever since/ Six Xerox board members and CEO, Jeff Jacobson agreed to step down in a settlement deal reached just a couple of weeks ago....

Color plays an enormous part in how a movie makes us feel (or a photo for that matter). In fact, when you look back at a movie, one of the most prominent memories will be how it was colored. Maybe not on a conscious level, but the color palate ultimately gives a movie its feel. Cinema Palettes breaks the color palate down from some poplar movies. This can serve as a great reference tool when you are seeking inspiration or wanting to set the look for a clip of your own....

I’ve been following the YouTube channel Breaking Taps for quite a long time. It’s a fun mix of science, engineering and technology covering physics and the occasional bit of chemistry with some just flat out cool experiments, crazy tech and fascinating slow motion in between – like that time when he made his own scanning laser microscope (it’s pretty cool, you should watch it). Well, now he’s having a go at making some optical lens elements....

You may have followed a recent copyright dispute between concert photographer J. Salmeron and Thunderball Clothing. What started as one of the disputes we see pretty often has quickly ended up in the clothing company shutting down. Marta Gabriel, the owner of Thunderball Clothing, has announced that she will be shutting down the company due to a huge amount of hate comments she has received after the incident. In case you missed it, you can read the full story on this link, and I’ll sum it up....

Colorization artist Matt Loughrey recently came under fire for a serious “Photoshop crime.” He shared some of his work with Vice Asia, showing his colorized images of Cambodian genocide victims. But it was soon discovered that he added smiles to them, which caused quite a stir. Vice Asia published an interview with Loughrey on Friday, 9 April. The article is about his colorized images from S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison, where an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge....

Advertisements The competition was founded by Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, both professional photographers and passionate conservationists. It’s open for entries all over the world and it’s free to enter for everyone. The only condition is to show the funny side of the earth’s wildlife. And so far, the photographers all over the world have definitely managed to do it! However, it’s not just about the animals goofing around. If you’ve been following the contest, you know that it aims to highlight the extremely important message of wildlife conservation....

There are now two ways of creating digital images with a camera. You can either follow a software-centric computational photography approach. The other way is to stick to traditional hardware-centric optical photography. The former is used with AI to help enhance the final image, the latter relies on the quality of the camera’s components (e.g. lens, sensor). The two techniques may differ, but they are not at all on a collision course....

While it’s not quite April 1st in London yet, Kodak Moments UK were a little eager with the pranks. They took to the streets of London to get people try out a “super fast phone charger”, which would then wipe all the data on their phone before their eyes. This one seems particularly cruel and heartless, but it does make a very good point. Your phone could get lost, stolen or die at any time and you could lose everything....

Ever since the release of the first Deadpool trailer I knew I wanted to do a photo-shoot based on this character. The personality of this character leaves me with endless possibilities, from badass attitude to total irreverent behavior. First step was to source a cosplayer with a badass costume. I’ve been searching for a while and finally came across DaddyDeadpool.UK Cosplay. As soon as I saw pictures of him on Facebook I messaged him....

I’ve had a Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera for a while now, and I’m less than impressed. We photographers are a funny breed. We obsess over detail. It goes without saying that dust removal is not something like to retouch. We have enough work as it is. Back in the day (and by “the day” I mean ‘last year’) we had cameras with mirrors. Those mirrors, along with a shutter curtain, protected our delicate sensors from all manner of dust and grime....

Teleprompters have seen something of a surge in popularity over the last couple of years as more and more people have hopped onto YouTube. They’re invaluable for saving time when you regularly want to put out content. No longer do you actually have to try to memorise a script and shoot the same sequence 15 times because you keep messing it up. The leader in low-budget teleprompters has been the Parrot 2....

DJI is developing technology to allow anybody with a WiFi-enabled smartphone to access information on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying in your vicinity. The reasons why this is a good idea are quite obvious. To increase safety and security. But there are definitely going to be some privacy hurdles to overcome. The system seems like an extension of their AeroScope system, although without being quite as powerful. AeroScope was designed for officials at airports, military installations and other restricted areas to spot unauthorised drone use....