REVIEW : Fujifilm GFX 50S A New Look for Medium Format

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REVIEW : Fujifilm GFX 50S A New Look for Medium Format

This review is about the GFX 50S.  It's the first digital medium format camera from Fujifilm, but certainly not the company's first foray into medium format.  For a very long time, Fujifilm delivered some truly marvelous medium format film cameras.  The camera was supplied to me with two lenses, the 63mm/2.8 and the 120/4 Macro.  For those more accustomed to full frame 35mm focal lengths these behave like a 50mm and a 95mm (approximately) respectively. 

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VIRTUAL QUICK LOOK : The Nikon D7500

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VIRTUAL QUICK LOOK : The Nikon D7500

The good people at Nikon's agency sent me the press announcement on the day of, but in reading it, I discovered that the camera would not be available until mid-summer.  A local retailer is saying end of June on their preorder page.  Given that it is only mid April, I wanted to get a virtual look up as an announced but non-shipping product can create stoppage in some user's processes.  I have not shot the camera.  I have no special insight, so I am sticking to the announcement data for this virtual first look.

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REVIEW : Broncolor Move 1200 L Studio Flash System

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REVIEW : Broncolor Move 1200 L Studio Flash System

The Broncolor Move system is a special case type of studio and field strobe system.  It is a power pack based system, but the power pack uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery.  It's small and compact, but it uses Broncolor's MobiLED strobe heads, heads designed to be used with much larger AC based systems.  Lastly it packs a lot of power, 1200 joules to be used asymmetrically between two heads.  There are alternatives in this space, but I thought you might be interested in learning more about the Move 1200L and to see why, if portability, power, consistency and speed are part of your use case, a Move system may be the answer for you.

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REVIEW : Fundy Designer - Professional Albums and Wall Art

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REVIEW : Fundy Designer - Professional Albums and Wall Art

I believe that a photograph that is not printed is incomplete.  An image that is not printed is sentenced to death on a hard drive somewhere, or buried in an endless stream of snapshots on a tiny phone screen.  Given the alternatives, death is bad.  In many cases, a single print, however wonderful, does not tell a complete story.  This is where a proper album comes into play, and to solve that problem, we have Fundy Designer.

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QUICK REVIEW : Sigma 150mm - 600mm f/5-6.3 SPORT

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QUICK REVIEW : Sigma 150mm - 600mm f/5-6.3 SPORT

A client contacted me last week.  She was finding that her existing telephoto zoom lens did not have the reach that she needed for birding, and had done some initial research and was interested in Sigma's 150-600/5-6.3 Sport telephoto zoom.  She wanted to know if I had shot it and tested it before ordering one, because while priced competitively, they are not inexpensive.  To learn what I discovered, read on...

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REVIEW : Fujifilm X-T2 - This May Be the Mirrorless You Need/Want

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REVIEW : Fujifilm X-T2 - This May Be the Mirrorless You Need/Want

The good people at Fujifilm Canada have made an X-T2 available to me for review.  It came with the little flash in the box and two lenses, the Fujinon 10-24/4 and the Fujinon 55-200/3.5-4.8.  Care to find out how it fared in my testing, and whether I recommend it?  Read on my friends...

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REVIEW : MOLA Softlights - The Best I Have Ever Used

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REVIEW : MOLA Softlights - The Best I Have Ever Used

A beauty dish is a wonderful light shaping tool.   Using one well takes a fair bit of practice from a positioning perspective, but once you build the skill, there is no other light shaper like a good beauty dish.  Some manufacturers such as Profoto refer to these light shapers as soft lights.  In this review I look at the absolutely awesome MOLA softlight line

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REVIEW : Canon EOS M5 - Is this Canon's Best Mirrorless?

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REVIEW : Canon EOS M5 - Is this Canon's Best Mirrorless?

The question being posed is whether the EOS-M5 is Canon's best mirrorless ever.  The answer is unabashedly, and wholeheartedly, yes.  The more relevant question is whether the EOS M5 is a competitive offering, coming as it does, late to the game, and onto a field with other better established and well respected competitors.  Join me in this review, and you'll see my answer at the end, but more importantly be able to answer for yourself.

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REVIEW : Sigma ART 20mm f/1.4 - Scoping the Landscape

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Readers know that I am a fan of fast glass.  I love the flexibility it gives me and I tend to shoot fast lenses wide open because of that flexibility.  I have no fear of flash, I just like the ability to make an image wherever I might want to.  My latest opportunity is the review of Sigma's ART series 20mm f/1.4

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QUICK REVIEW : Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10

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QUICK REVIEW : Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10

I was heading to a motorcycle show and wanted a small high quality camera to use, that would not involve me taking anything that would not fit in a pocket.  I expected to be on and off bikes all day and wanted nothing swinging on a strap or requiring a bag.  Bryan Weiss of Daytripper Photo, knows the high end point and shoot space better than I so I asked his advice.   His first reaction matched mine, which was to reach for Sony RX-100 Mark IV.  Then he asked if I was willing to try something new and thus began my working day with the Lumix LX10.

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REVIEW : Nikon KeyMission 170 and Keymission 360

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REVIEW : Nikon KeyMission 170 and Keymission 360

The folks at Nikon Canada have sent me a pair of KeyMission products to have a look at.  I was initially curious as to why a solid camera company like Nikon would get into action and 360 cameras.  To me this seemed a strange decision but I thought it would be worthwhile to have a look.

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REVIEW : Palette - Customizable Controls for Software

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REVIEW : Palette - Customizable Controls for Software

The idea behind Palette is to allow the user of a number of photo and video applications to build a custom control surface for each application.  I contacted the manufacturer when the device was first announced, but they were not ready for media review at the time and I forgot about the device for about a year.  I recently obtained a Professional version for evaluation.  Let's see what we see.

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