August and September have been pretty exciting as far as gear announcements go. Nikon Z7 and Z6 are out, along with the lenses and adapter. Canon’s full-frame-mirrorless system has also been launched, and Fujifilm X-T3 is out, too. Many photographers are thinking whether to switch systems or gear brands, and it’s a kind of a big decision to make. In this video, Mark Denney discusses three very important things to consider before you make the final decision. Because, when you take everything into consideration – you may not need to buy the new gear after all.
Bokeh or Nokeh – What Is Your Preference (and Does It Really Matter)?
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So I’m down at the dock at the cottage and I decided that I wanted to snap a photo of my coffee to post a fairly typical, quick and easy Instagram banger.
Since the purpose of this photo was straight to social, I arranged the composition and then pulled out my phone to snap the picture (because why would a manufacturer build a camera with Android to be able to do this on an actual camera…).
After snapping the photo, I decided that it actually looked pretty decent – nice enough that I had to run back up to the cottage to grab my DSLR with an 85mm f/1.4…because, well, you know…bokeh.
Why the godfather of sports photography switched from Olympus to Canon. In 1976
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In the past couple of years, we’ve heard of many photographers switching from DSLR to mirrorless. Some of them have gone the other way around, and yet some have changed from MFT to mirrorless. They all have their reasons for these decisions, but switching systems isn’t a trend that came with mirrorless cameras. The “godfather of sports photography” Don Morley changed systems a couple of times in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In 1976, he ended up using Canon and he told the story about why he made the final switch.
The photographer’s paradox: do you really need all your gear for each task?
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Photographers invest a lot over the years. Not just in their gear, but also in their knowledge and skills of photography, retouching, marketing, and business. We all aim to make perfect photos, but Daniel DeArco shares an eye-opening video on this topic. He calls it “the photographer’s paradox” and he discusses whether you really need “perfect” photos every time and whether you really need to use all the gear you have. You can consider it an important lesson in marketing, and it will make you look at photography from a different perspective.
Watch a Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens make a late entry into freestyle swimming competition
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Most of us have done something risky on a shoot before. And if we haven’t, we probably will at some point. Perhaps we perched our camera or an expensive flash somewhere precariously for a shot. Maybe it even paid off, and perhaps it didn’t.
For one photographer, the risk certainly didn’t pay off, as he drops what looks like a Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens and 5D style DSLR body straight into a swimming pool. That’s an expensive risk to take, and an expensive mistake to make.
Look after yourself as well as your gear
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I don’t know about you, but I’m super paranoid about my gear when I travel, which is pretty often these days. I am a big fan of ThinkTank bags and so have all my lenses, batteries and cameras in carryon ThinkTank bags, which may or may not weigh the required 7kgs that most economy class limits require.
Six must-have camera accessories if you’re just starting out
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There seems to be many beginners in photography, who enthusiastically buy a mirrorless or DSLR-camera, use it intensively for two weeks, and then never touch it again. Yet some people manage to truly make photography into a passion from the very start, and they go on to enjoy it for years and years.
I believe a core deciding factor for which of these you become, is how good your experience is during the first few weeks with the camera. Furthermore, I believe that the experience is often decided by what kind of accessories you have. In this article I am listing six accessories I believe should be among the first you purchase. Most of them are cheaper than you might expect, especially if you are brave enough to purchase third-party versions.
It doesn’t matter why this photographer switched from the Fuji X100 to the X-T20
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We often hear stories from both sides of the fence on how much gear really matters. And there are many arguments both for and against Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). We all go through the feelings of it at some point. I know I have. Whether or not we act on it is another matter entirely.
Photographer Sean Tucker decided that he was going to switch out his Fuji X100, a camera which he loves and often raves about, for an X-T20. So, he did exactly that. He picked up an X-T20 along with used 23mm and 35mm lenses. When he posted a photo of it to Instagram, he was hit with wildly varying comments, and lots of them. In this video, he talks about them, offers his response.
Why gear costs what it costs
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In the last couple of weeks my little brand, 3 Legged Thing, launched a brand new Universal L Bracket – the QR11. For the most part, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Then, somebody sent me a link to a well known forum, where a conversation had started about the press release for the QR11. The comments were almost wholly negative with more than one contributor stating “You can buy this from **insert website name** for $7″ or “I got one from China for $5 and it works just fine”.
Fantastic. What you actually did is perpetuate a cycle of intellectual property theft, and put your own equipment at risk by using something that has zero accountability, or any certification, made with unknown materials, in a factory where you have no idea what the conditions are like. That’s what you did. I’ll take you through it, step by step, so you can understand.
Why I swapped my “professional” DSLR camera for the cheapest option available
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As anyone who follows me on Facebook will know, I recently purchased a new photographic photography camera system – camera body and lenses. This wasn’t an “upgrade”, however, and was, in fact, a “downgrade”.
I got myself a Canon 100D, which is the smallest, cheapest, lightest entry-level DSLR on the market today (Canon call it: “for beginners”, well, we will see). Along with the body, I picked up a an entry level 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, as well as a 55-250mm f/4-5.6 kit entry level telephoto lens.
