DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

Search

Submit A Story

Reviews

Saramonic BlinkMe wireless mics sport an innovative touchscreen OLED

by Add Comment

Saramonic recently announced the new Saramonic BlinkMe (buy here) wireless microphone system. Like many small wireless microphone systems before it, it operates on public 2.4 GHz frequencies, and is designed to attach to clothing to pick up your voice and send it to a camera or other recording device.

Saramonic BlinkMe has a trick or two up its sleeve, though, with a couple of nice features that the competition are lacking. It’s by no means perfect, but it’s the first wireless microphone I’ve seen in a long time that showed any kind of original thinking. I’ve had one for a couple of weeks now, so let’s take a look at it in more detail and hear how it sounds.

[Read More…]

Lens review: TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2x Macro tilt-shift

by Add Comment

Talk about ratcheting up the complexity!  I’ve reviewed a number of TTArtisan lenses before, and they have mostly fallen into the categories that are filled by a lot of what I call “Boutique Third Parties”.  These include various manual everything prime lenses with varying maximum aperture sizes.   While engineering for larger apertures (like their F0.95 lenses) are more challenging, their newest lens adds a LOT of new moving parts.  That lens is the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro Tilt/Shift (we’ll shorten that to TTA100M for this review).

[Read More…]

I used the Nikon Z8 for two weeks – a field report

Last month, I spent two weeks on the frozen sea ice along the coast of Baffin Island, Canada, searching for female polar bears who had just emerged from their dens with their newborn cubs. Knowing that encounters would likely not be closer than 100 meters, I decided the new Nikkor Z 600/4.0 TC VR S would be the perfect lens for this project. Luckily, Nikon was able to provide me with one, and they gave me the new Nikkor Z 400/4.5 VR S lens to try out — the smallest and lightest 400mm prime in its class.

When I arrived at Nikon HQ to collect the lenses, a surprise awaited: a prototype of the new Nikon Z8 to test in the high Arctic. Needless to say, I was excited to try it out. This has been an eagerly awaited addition to the Nikon mirrorless lineup, and all I knew were the many online rumors. None as outrageous as my April Fools Z9 Field Report spoof, but still just rumors.
This field report is about my initial impressions of the Z8 and my experiences in the field. I will also write about my experiences with the 600 and the 400, but I will do that in a separate article.

[Read More…]

Lens review: Sigma 23mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary

by 2 Comments

It has been four years since I last reviewed a premium Sigma DN prime lens designed specifically for APS-C.  The last one that I tested was the Sigma 56mm F1.4 DN, which impressed me as a portrait/short telephoto lens that was extremely sharp (one of the sharpest APS-C lenses that I’ve tested).  Sigma is finally back with a new entry in the line-up, and this one covers the incredibly important full frame equivalent 35mm focal length.  The Sigma 23mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary is (according to Sigma) the APS-C equivalent of their 35mm F1.4 DN ART lens, though, as we’ll see, Sigma’s design brief for the APS-C series follows a different formula than their full frame lenses.  Here’s a look at the DC (APS-C) DN (mirrorless) lineup thus far.

[Read More…]

Lens review: Leica Noctilux 50mm f0.95 ASPH M – A Nocturne

by Add Comment

If I remember correctly, I briefly held this lens in Sydney 2011 Photokina. Good old days when there weren’t too many product releases, and each excited you. Noctilux is like Mount Everest for every Leica lover, the holy grail. We climbers reach the base camp with the Summilux, and we are all waiting for the right moment to climb the top without a sherpa. You have to try it once to feel the power. You don’t have to buy it, just bring your wife or girlfriend to a local dealer and try this lens. Show them the picture. I am confident they will like it.

50mm is my favourite focal length. I almost bought this lens by trading in the Noctilux 50mm f/1.2 ASPH reissue to a local dealer. But I walked out of the store without a 0.95 because that copy suffered a front-focusing issue. I kept searching for another copy in Hong Kong; a copy that focuses accurately will suffice. Thanks to my good friend Andrew for letting me try his lens. Now I know what’s so magical about this lens.

[Read More…]

Toshiba Canvio Slim – Is it still worth getting a USB hard drive in 2023?

by Add Comment

If there’s one constant as a photographer or filmmaker, you can never have enough storage space. No matter how much storage we already have, we need to constantly keep increasing our capacity. Sometimes that means shoving more drives inside our computers, but sometimes, the solution is portable external drives.

We’ll get to the SSD vs HDD debate in a minute, but we’ve been testing out the Toshiba Canvio Slim 2TB HDD (buy here) for the last few weeks in various scenarios to see how it stands up in 2023 with the onslaught of fast – but not necessarily inexpensive – solid-state storage.

[Read More…]

Insta360 One RS 1-inch: changing the game in 360 low light photography

by 2 Comments

The Insta360 One RS 1-Inch 360 Edition (here) is a game-changer in the world of low light photography. With its advanced technology, this camera is capable of capturing stunning images even in the most challenging lighting conditions. It’s not new on the scene, but I wanted to test it in challenging conditions. In this blog post, I’ll explain how this camera helped me shoot the northern lights in 360. [Read More…]

One ONsite Relay C can replace 8 batteries

by 1 Comment

You’ve been there. You are shooting a long-form video or running a full night timelapse, and boom! Your battery dies. It’s one of those sad things that comes with digital photography. The need for power. If you are shooting something where you cannot move your camera, swapping batteries can be a real project killer. This is where the ONsite Relay C (link) comes in. It provides an uninterrupted power supply to your camera via the battery chamber. (And that battery port thing matters. I’ll get to that later).

The ONsite Relay C is a battery coupler with some smarts to connect more than one battery to your camera. More than one battery means that even if one battery runs out, the other battery will keep pushing power to your camera, so the camera never feels the swap. From the camera’s perspective, it just has one huge power reservoir to drink from.

[Read More…]

ON1 Sky Swap AI 2023 versus Adobe Photoshop Sky replacement

by 2 Comments

ON1 have released their latest software, ON1 Sky Swap AI 2023, competing directly with the powerhouse that is Adobe. Sky Replacement has been a feature of Adobe Photoshop for some time now and uses Adobe Sensei, the AI engine in Adobe, to create a mask. It only seemed right that we put these two pieces of software head-to-head and play spot the difference. There’s a part of me that wants Adobe to come out on top but it seems they’re up against some tough competition.

[Read More…]

SmallRig Heavy-Duty Tripod carbon fiber kit is packed with features

by Add Comment

A while back SmallRig entered the tripods market with a heavy-duty aluminum tripod. It was an entry-level video tripod at about $150. Now, there is a second, more professional version of the SmallRig Heavy-Duty Tripod in Carbon Fiber ($399.00), and it is packed with features.

I guess that Smallrig took the time between the design and manufacturing of those tripods to listen to customer feedback, because a lot of the things that were missing from the first-generation tripod are now solved. Let’s jump right in.

[Read More…]

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts