Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
“Comparisonitis” is the phenomenon of comparing yourself negatively to others; feeling that your life, love, work, holidays, house, or just the tidyness of your undersink cupboard, just aren’t as good as someone else’s.
Earlier this month, I found myself in a room of 50 professional photographers at the SHOOT EDIT CHAT REPEAT LIVE podcast event. If you don’t know about it already, SHOOT EDIT CHAT REPEAT is a fabulous podcast hosted by photographers Vicki Knights and Eddie Judd.
AA batteries are becoming less common amongst photographers as they once were as more flash systems switch to lithium-ion power solutions, but they haven’t disappeared altogether. Many devices do still require them, though, and so photographers and filmmakers still use them.
Some photographers opt for something like regular Duracell Alkalines because they’re just less hassle, but a lot go for rechargeables. How good are rechargeables over the long term, though? YouTube channel Project Farm has been abusing a bunch of different brands of AA battery over the last year, and now they’re taking a look to see which ones have withstood the test of time.
When the GoPro Hero 7 Black was announced it was lauded as the “Gimbal killer” with some pretty amazing built-in image stabilisation. It’s even convinced a few people to finally upgrade from their GoPro Hero 4. But has DJI just announced a “GoPro killer”?
DJI recently announced the new DJI Osmo Pocket. A teeny tiny gimbal that seems to easily match the Hero 7 on specs, but features a true mechanical built-in gimbal rather than electronic image stabilisation. Dave Altizer at Kinotika took the two out for a spin to see how they compare.
There are so many neutral density filter brands out there that it can be difficult to know which one to choose. The choice becomes even more difficult when you start to look at super strong ones claiming 10 stops of light stopping power. You hear all the time about softness issues, vignetting and colour casts. But which one is the best?
That’s what photographer Christopher Frost wanted to find out. So, he contacted a bunch of 10 stop filter manufacturers to do a straight up side-by-side comparison between them all to see how they stand up.
I was just talking yesterday about how interesting it is to see the progression of digital cameras. Well, here we have another. This time a £300 used setup consisting of the original Canon 5D with 50mm f/1.8 lens vs the £5,000 combination of Canon 5D Mark IV & 50mm f/1.2.
Photographer Pablo Strong takes the two systems out on a walk around London shooting street photography. He shoots similar images with the two side-by-side to see how well the 5D holds up against more modern equipment.
The Tamron 70-210mm f/4 Di VC lens has had a lot of hype. Leaked in February, announced a day later, and subsequently reviews on its own, it’s seems to be quite a good lens. But how does it stand up against the Nikon 70-200mm f/4 VR and the brand new Canon 70-200mm f/4 IS II? And which should you buy?
That’s what this video from DPReview TV aims to find out. Chris and Jordan team up with photographer Kyle Marquardt to put them to the test. Which is going to be best for you will depend on your needs.
In my newest video I compared the 6 different softbox options available from Cheetah.
This includes the Quick SoupBowl (QSB-26, QSB-34, QSB-42), Quick RiceBowl (QRB-36, QRB-48) and Max20.
This is the new Huawei P20 Pro smartphone, which boasts what the manufacturers claim is the best ever smartphone camera. Actually, a combination of three sensors with individual lenses, a 40 megapixel (yes!) 1/1.7 inch colour sensor (significantly larger than the 1/2.9 sensor in the iPhone X), a 20 megapixel monochrome sensor (both these sensors are approximately equivalent to a full-frame 27mm lens) and a 8 megapixel 80mm equivalent lens for zooming.
Panasonic says that the GH5S is a direct response to feedback they received from filmmakers about the very popular GH5. We got to check one out for ourselves during The Photography Show recently, and it does have some noticeable improvements.
It has a new sensor, dual native ISO, the maximum framerate has gone up to 240fps, V-Log L gamma curve is included, and a host of other features. The Slanted Lens put the two cameras through a range of side-by-side tests to see how well the real world experience matches up with the on-paper specs.
Along with the iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel range of smartphones are the generally considered the top picks when it comes to their cameras. All three companies are pushing the boundaries of what phone cameras can do to edge out the competition.
It doesn’t seem that there’s a single clear winner, though, when it comes to everything. Despite what DxOMark might have you believe. In this in-depth comparison from YouTuber, SuperSaf we see just how well the new Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus and the Pixel 2 XL stack up against each other.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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