All in Gear

My Dream Nikon Camera

With Photokina just around the corner, and with most of the major manufacturers probably going to announce new cameras, I’ve been thinking about what my ideal camera would be. Without getting into brand wars and camera maker loyalty, I am particularly keen to see what Nikon will announce. They’ve been on a roll lately with the D500 and the D5 and considering that the D810 and D750 starting to look a little old, an announcement might be on the cards.

(From the Photography Geek)

The Difference a Good Lens Makes

It never ceases to amaze me the difference a good lens can make to your image quality. I know this sounds like an obvious thing, but until you've used some high end glass, you don't really know just how much of a difference it can make. There's a lot of misinformation out there on the internet (shocker) when it comes to what makes a good lens, or even the importance of good quality optics to begin with. One well known and somewhat infamous blogger, has even stated that the lens actually makes no difference in terms of image quality. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Fun With Monitor Calibration

I've been using a defunct Pantone Huey Pro to calibrate my display, for pretty much as long as I can remember. While the device hasn't been officially supported for a while, it had continued to function until recently. Since El Capitan came out, the software hasn't been working properly, and my display has been slowly drifting. On top of that, somewhere along the way, the gamma got screwed up, which I didn't realise. So the upshot of this is that my screen was too bright, and so I was outputting my images too dark. 

Handmade Camera Strap from Etsy

I recently decided to get a new camera strap for my old film camera. By new, I really mean: "one in the first place" as it has been without a strap for some time since I "borrowed" the one that came with it for something else. I wanted something that fitted the retro nature of the camera, and I also wanted something fairly minimal. So I decided to try and have a look on Etsy, and what I found was a lovely piece of hand made craftsmanship.

Where to get Sony A6300 Raw Files

If you're curious to see how the new Sony A6300 images look , you can now try them out for yourself. Both Lightroom and Capture One have added raw support for the new camera, and there are now a couple of places where you can download sample raw files. Here are the samples that I've found so far...

Sony A6300 Video Footage Looks Impressive

I know I'm getting  a bit carried away with posts on the upcoming Sony A6300, but I'm really excited about the potential of this camera. In particular, I'm really looking forward to the video features of the new Sony. On paper it sounds impressive, but now there's some real world testing and footage out there too, and it doesn't disappoint.

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 E-Mount & 50-100mm EF, F and SA Lenses Announced

One of the biggest complaints that users of Sony’s Aps-c format E-mount cameras such as the A6000 have is the lack of good, inexpensive prime lenses. In my recent long term review of the A6000 I made this point, and I wished for an equivalent to Fuji’s excellent 35mm f/1.4. In fact, the lack of a good fast native prime for the format has been a real issue. Fortunately Sigma has just addressed that gap in the lineup with the launch of the new 30mm f/1.4mm prime lens for e-mount (and m43).

Taking My Old Canon 5D Mark 1 Out For a Spin

I decided to take my oldest DSLR out for a spin yesterday, and so I dusted off my ten year old Canon Eos 5D (the first one), charged it up and headed out to see what it was like shooting with the camera. The 5D Mark 1 still takes good pictures (in terms of Image quality) compared to today's cameras. The sensor is still pretty good at low ISO, and can hold its own compared to modern equivalents. That aspect of the camera actually holds up pretty well. However, the actual shooting experience wasn't great. 

Thoughts on the New Sony Alpha A6300

Yesterday Sony released the spiritual successor to the A6000, the A6300. I say spiritual, because the A6000 is still being sold. As many of my log term readers know, I’ve been using the A6000 for over a year now, and I recently wrote a 3 part real world review of the camera. The successor has been rumoured for quite some time, and now it’s here. I’m very impressed with what I’m reading about it, at least with the specs on paper. At first glance the A6300 may seem like a minor evolution over the A6000, but in my opinion, it’s a massive improvement over the older camera, especially in the area of video. In fact, for video, I think that it’s revolutionary to have these features at the price point and size.

Second Hand Fuji Cameras

There will undoubtedly be lots of excitement surrounding the announcement of the new X-Pro 2 if it is announced as rumoured in a few hours time. However, if you're looking to get into the Fuji X system on the cheap, you should look at the second hand market. Certain Fuji cameras are going for very little on the second hand market right now. If you're on a tight budget and you are interested in becoming an X-Shooter it's certainly worth a look.

A Year with the Sony A6000: A Long Term Review - Part 1

Last January, at the beginning of 2015, I decided to add a Sony A6000 to my ever growing camera collection. The reasons for the purchase were twofold. My Sony Nex–7 had died an unceremonious death, and it was going to cost too much to repair. Secondly, I wanted a small camera for video. Since then I’ve used the little Sony more and more and over the past 12 months I’ve really grown to like it.