Action lights are strange little things. When I first saw them, when the Lume Cube was announced, I thought they looked pretty useless. A light that small, how powerful can they be, really? Then I got a Litra Torch, and I was rather shocked at just how good these little lights are. Even though I’m not always using it for video, it’s a very handy bright little general purpose utility light, too....
If you wanted to buy the Lensbaby Sweet, Twist 60 and Velvet separately, you’d be spending over $1,000. Now, you can get all three for only $279.95. At least, you can if you shoot Sony E, Fuji X or Micro Four Thirds. Lensbaby have today announced the new Lensbaby Trio 28mm f/3.5 lens which combines all three of these unique effects into a single lens. We caught up with Lensbaby CEO, Ken Mitchell at Photokina recently for a chat....
Nikon’s 105mm f/1.4 lens made a big splash when it was announced last year. Being the world’s fastest 105mm prime lens, it’s not much of a surprise. Having been in the hands of photographers for a few months now, it’s done nothing but impress. It’s a top quality lens, with a price tag to match. But what about those who don’t want or can’t afford to spend $2,200 on a 105mm lens?...
It probably wasn’t going to be much of a surprise for the new Nikon D850 to do rather well on DxOMark. The pixel peeper’s favourite website rates it as being the best overall sensor on the market, scoring it at a pretty perfect 100. The 45.7MP sensor contained within the D850 is Nikon’s entry into the world of full frame backside illuminated sensors. It seems to have paid off, for the most part....
We know that the Nikon D850 autofocus system isn’t that great for video. This wasn’t really going to be much of a surprise. But it seems that it’s not as quite good as it could be when it comes to stills, either. The Nikon D850 autofocus is the same as that found in the flagship Nikon D5. And while the D850 does seem to outperform just about every other Nikon out there, it can’t keep up with its big brother....
You’d want to watch the video to fully understand the physics behind it, but in a nutshell, Jimmy uses a cropped-sensor camera, along with a speed booster and a full-frame lens. This combo gains an extra stop of light while also re-adjusting the light beam to use not spill over the sensor edge. To validate the theory, Jimmy tested three combinations of camera/lenses: A cropped sensor A6300 with a 35mm lens @f/1....
Last month, Nikon announced the development of a lightweight and compact AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR. At a recent FIFA World Cup 2018 event, the upcoming lens was spotted, and it sure does look tiny for a 500mm lens. A Moscow-based photojournalist Pavel Bednyakov shared a photo in a tweet from a Nikon party that took place on Friday in Moscow. The photo shows him shooting with the Nikon’s new 500mm f/5....
I’ve spoken about the View-Master here on DIYP before. In fact, as recently as the Kandao QooCam EGO review I posted a few weeks ago. It’s something that many of my generation and older look back on with fondness and wonder. While positively primitive by today’s standards, being able to see images in 3D was amazing to us as kids back then and it still fascinates me today. Well, one person, Jason Altice of the YouTube channel CodeMakesItGo has turned it into an obsession....
In the middle of the pandemic and yet another hectic year, it’s always nice to turn to art and nature. Nature inFocus brings the two together in its annual photography competition. The 2021 winners have just been announced, and they’re as magnificent as only the natural world can be. The contest was founded in India by Rohit and Kalyan Varma. Despite the pandemic, the contest saw increasing participation from all over the world, according to the founders....
Having a photography studio is fun, but it is even more fun when you start applying simple and cheap solutions, plus common sense to make your shooting experience (and your clients’) smoother. This is the list of what I think are the smartest and most useful photography studio life hacks. 1 Transparent rubber hairband to tidy up cables & color gels These little guys are a life saver for those who enjoy having a tidy studio (me included)....
You’ve met Dr. Kah-Wai Lin here on DIYP through his icy photos that could make you fall in love with winter. This time, this incredible photographer has treated us to something much hotter. He visited the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland and took aerial photos and videos of the eruption. And just like his other work, these shots will make your jaw drop in awe. Since late February 2021, a series of earthquakes started occurring in Iceland, near Fagradalsfjall....
If you want to be a photojournalist, ethical photography is something you need to master just as the artistic and technical parts of the craft. However, not all photographers stick with the rules of ethics. Instead, some of them stage their photos, direct their subjects, or even manipulate images in post. In this video, Michael The Maven shares some famous cases of photojournalists who were caught cheating. It’s an interesting video to watch, but also a useful reminder of what not to do if you want to be a good photojournalist....
If you want to start shooting videos or vlog, I guess you already know how expensive cameras can be. But why not start small? In this video, Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter suggests as many as 10 cameras that are great for video, yet they all cost under $300. When choosing cameras for this list, Caleb had three main criteria in mind: Each camera has to cost $300 or lessNo special deals -you can get these cameras at these prices all the timeAll cameras can shoot 1080p at 24fps...
360° cameras have come far in the last couple of years. I remember trying out the first version of the Ricoh Theta and thinking that it was a cool idea, but the quality and feature set just wasn’t there. When the YI 360 VR was released, offering 5.7K resolution, I felt they were finally starting to hit that point. But the tech that goes into 360° cameras has come much further since then....
The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards is centered on the photos of animals that are sure to improve your day. The finalists of the 2018 contest have just been announced, and these will definitely brighten up your mood. The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards were founded by Tanzania-based wildlife photographers and enthusiasts Tom Sullam and Paul Joynson-Hicks. And although it revolves around funny photos, the cause of the contest is a more serious matter....
The new Nikon D850 has many praised features, image quality and file size being among them. The camera features 45.7 MP backside illuminated sensor and allows shooting three sizes of RAW files. Until you get your hands on this camera, you can see the sample images from Nikon Imaging Japan and Dan Vojtech. Nikon Japan shared hi-res sample JPG images, as well as two sample videos. Dan’s photos include photos shot at different settings and sizes, some of them are cropped at 100%, and you can also see the low light performance when D850 is compared to D800....
Sony has released some sample images shot with the recently announced Sony A7R IV and they look pretty glorious in their detail. The resolution of the original files is 9504 x 6336 pixels, and they range in file size from just over 30MB to just under 50MB as jpg files. Obviously, they haven’t let any raw files out, as there’s no support for them in anything yet. I’ve scaled the images down to 1920 pixels wide for this post, for ease of loading, but I’ve included a few 100% crops of detailed areas of the images....
Canon’s EOS 5DS and 5DSR have proven quite popular amongst landscape, architecture, product, macro and other photographers who demand high resolutions over speed. But they were released in 2015 and Canon has shown no indication that they’ll be replaced by an upcoming DSLR. A high-resolution EOS R mirrorless model, however, has been rumoured for a while now. Now it looks like the folks at Canon Rumors have managed to get their hands on some possible specs for the new high-res mirrorless, which they’re dubbing the “EOS Rs”....
When you have a vivid imagination, you can turn everyday objects into extraordinary images. This is precisely what Stephan Friedli and Ulrik Martin Larsen (aka PUTPUT) do in their artistic projects. The duo creates clever ambiguous photomontages that will confuse you at first and make you look twice. Stephan is from Switzerland and Ulrik is from Denmark, but they’re both currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The artists established PUTPUT in 2011, and they describe it as “the visual and conceptual meeting of two minds, a collaboration in thought and practice....
Today though, Chris shares with DIYP readers some of the tests he regularly makes to show how different frame rates affect final footage. Some of the tests are absolutely stunning, especially when they involve liquids, fire or explosions that are hard to fully see with the naked eye. Capturing high-speed footage is not an easy task, the fast frame rate demands high shutter speeds, which in turn require a lot of light....
