I wanted to try out my skills at nightscapes in some of the most stunning parts of the world to shoot them. The challenge though was that I had to be shooting the whole day from about 7am till 10pm or 11pm most nights.Then I would get back to my hotel room and have to back up cards, charge batteries and get everything ready for the next day. Needless to say, I didn’t have that much energy left to stay up all night shooting the stars most nights....

Gudsen has announced their new Moza Air 2S gimbal; successor to their popular Moza Air 2. It brings with it a new battery offering up to 20 hours of use, with rapid charging taking you from flat-to-full in a mere 2 hours compared to 16 hours of use and 5 hours charge time of its predecessor as well as an all-new metal construction. The new Air 2S offers a similar load capacity to the Air 2 and while it might seem like an incremental update, it offers some some nice advantages and improvements....

I remember having a rather extensive range of Hot Wheels cars when I was a kid. It would’ve been great to be able to strap a camera to them and get their view of the world. Unfortunately, at the time, video cameras were kinda big. The smallest weren’t that far off a mid-sized family vehicle. Ok, maybe they were a bit smaller than that but certainly too big to strap to a tiny hot wheels car....

Godox has launched its tiny new Godox AD100Pro strobe. Coming in at a modest 100Ws, it’s significantly smaller than even the AD300Pro strobe, which is already pretty compact, and is powered by the same battery as the Godox V1 speedlight. As with all of the strobes in the Godox lineup, it’s compatible with the Godox X 2.4Ghz wireless system, Unlike the AD300Pro, this new tiny light has no bare bulb and features just the round head with magnetic modifier mount, like the V1 and the Godox H200R round head for the AD200 and AD200Pro lights....

Godox has announced a new S-R1 Round Head Accessories Adapter (B&H) for their speedlights to be able to use them with the magnetic modifiers. The magnetic modifiers are part of the Godox AK-R1 accessories kit (B&H) for the H200R Round Head for the Godox AD200. It’s not quite the round head speedlight we’ve been expecting, but it’ll certainly come in very useful for those who want to be able to use those AK-R1 modifiers on their speedlights while we wait....

I guess we all know the viral Grumpy Cat, the spirit animal of many of us (especially on Monday mornings). In 2015, a beverage company used Grumpy Cat’s name and image without a license, and the kitty’s owner Tabatha Bundesen decided to file a lawsuit. On Monday, the court ruled in her favor and she was awarded $710,001 in damages. As the Hollywood Reporter writes, after the viral success of her cat, Bundesen quit her job at Red Lobster and founded Grumpy Cat Limited....

In many parts of the U.S. the reality of social distancing policies have only been in place for about a month. Yet during that time and the few weeks that preceded it, photographers have already churned through a number of phases to document and depict the outbreak. In a sense, these phases represent visual tropes – a way of immediately understanding that the photo is illustrative of the pandemic. And in its laziest form, these tropes are, in the words of Fred Ritchin, mere “signifiers....

Whether you love or hate Zack Snyder’s latest flick, Army of the Dead (which I have now watched since my last post about it), it sure did have some beautiful cinematography. One shot in particular really stands out. It’s the Michael Bay-esque spinning shot around our heroes as they blast away with their weapons while being told the plan for… Ok, if you haven’t seen it, stop reading now, because there will likely be spoilers here....

Welcome to Seoul Toll Gate, a place where your dreams prevail and physics perish. Or does it? Of course it does not, this optical illusion is an aerial photo of the tall gate, which is, of course, perfectly flat. Well, at least as flat as most things are. Here is the thing, since this is a toll gate, the lanes get broader as they are closer to the booth line....

While smartphones haven’t quite taken over from DSLRs and mirrorless cameras in the professional world, their popularity as cameras is in no doubt. In an attempt to make your smartphone feel more like an actual camera, though, ShiftCam has launched the ProGrip, an ergonomic multifunction grip for your smartphone. It gives you more of that feel you get when you hold a “real” camera with an actual grip designed for your hand and a shutter button placed you’d find it on just about any DSLR or mirrorless camera....

The Smithsonian Institution has released an online gallery of 2.8 million images with more to come. The massive collection includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, along with nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo. And the best of all is: all photos are copyright-free and available for you to download and use. Smithsonian Magazine writes that the aim of its Open Access platform isn’t just for the viewers to view its contents....

Every few months it seems like Fujifilm are going a bit less “film”. To the point where they should probably get ready to just drop the latter half of their name altogether. In the latest round of culls, Fujifilm have announced a few more film stocks and formats that are going to be disappearing in 2018. Fujifilm seem hell bent on killing off their film products entirely. Well, if that’s their plan, they’re certainly doing a good job....

Bokeh balls. I wasn’t aware that was a phrase but apparently, it is, according to this rather amusing video by Kai and Lok. In the video, they are having a look at two admittedly wildly different lenses, both with the feature of having very wide apertures and seeing what the bokeh is like for each of these. For those of you who may not know, bokeh is the out of focus fuzzy parts of the image....

Even if you plan to alter or grade your footage afterwards, having an accurate and consistent starting point makes your life much easier. Getting perfect white balance without a grey card, Expodisc, ColorChecker or fancy colour meter can be tricky, though. But it’s not impossible. This video from Blake Rudis at f64 Academy walks us through a simple 3 step process to get perfect white balance in Adobe Camera Raw....

Macro is one of those subjects that kind of has two extremes. Either you can go way over the top expensive, with decent macro lenses starting at quite a few hundred dollars or you can go super cheap, utilising tools such as extension tubes with your “normal” lenses. But there is a third alternative, a mix of inexpensive and DIY. And this project from Nick Sherlock takes that DIY route to a low budget extreme with some pretty amazing results....

Well, this is pretty awesome. At least, it is if you happen to own a Canon RF mount camera, some EF mount lenses and a 3D printer. While Canon’s busy coming up with their own adapters, and the competition is releasing theirs, the 3D printing community has been happily doing its own thing to satisfy their needs. Like, Whomstevest, for example, who’s designed this 3D printable EF to RF tilt adapter....

A team of robotic researchers has created the only cockroach that you don’t want to step on. Scientists from Germany, China, Singapore, and the UK teamed up to create a crossover between a living cockroach and a mini camera. This cyborg insect would be used for search and rescue missions as it can surpass the limitations of the other existing miniature robots. The idea of a remote-controlled cockroach isn’t entirely new....

Since Nikon introduced video to DSLRs,the biggest complaint has been about the form factor of DSLRs. When Canon released the 5D Mark II, the demand for these cameras for video work surged. I’ve seen reports stating that as high as 40% of 5D Mark II sales were to video production companies. But, the ergonomics are just wrong. Today, there are many companies selling all kinds of cages and doohickies you can bolt onto your cameras to make them more useful....

360 cameras have been seen by a bit of a gimmick by many people. They’re ok for grabbing quick snaps of yourself and your friends in the environment when you’re on vacation, but that’s about it. At least, it is for them. But there are so many creative things you can do with 360 cameras that you couldn’t really shoot any other way. One person who’s been having a lot of fun with his 360 camera lately is Alex Ezorsky, who created a series of short videos with an amusing take on the struggles of meeting up with other people these days – as well as a couple of other amusing shorts, like The Hamster Dilemma above....

While the in-person event was cancelled again this year, CP+ still went ahead as an online event. As a result, we got a smaller than usual flurry of gear announcements, but there were quite a few good ones – particularly if you’re a Micro Four Thirds or Fuji shooter. As has become usual with events that have gone online, many of the announcements came before CP+ was scheduled to start....