gear

eBay Unveils ‘My Gadgets’ Feature, Keeps Track of How Much Your Gear is Worth

It seems like new and improved camera gear pops up every couple of weeks these days, leading to an endless cycle of discover, buy, sell and repeat. Well, if you're the kind of person who always wants to have the newest gear around, and you're constantly selling off your old gear on eBay to make it happen, the website has just officially announced a new feature that will make your life much easier.

Called My Gadgets, the new eBay feature can keep track of all of the gear you own and let you know about how much you can expect to make when you sell it, making it that much easier when it comes time to upgrade.

The Science of G.A.S.

People will do just about anything to alleviate their anxiety. During the last year of writing my doctoral thesis, the worry about being able to finish grew increasingly heavy. The relentless grind of research, constantly being told that your work is inadequate, and believing that 80-hour workweeks are average has its tolls on all students. Once you reach the edge of this process and are pulverized into oblivion, you get a nice, shiny PhD.

You may be wondering what got me through this. The answer? Buying a ton of camera equipment. To photographers, this type of retail therapy is known as gear acquisition syndrome. Someone with this syndrome impulsively buys cameras and related gear, amassing more camera gear than they can realistically use.

LensRentals Launches LensAuthority as a Used Gear Outlet

LensRentals is at the height of its popularity and still growing. About a week ago, we shared some stats that more than proved this, showing how a company started by one man and $5,500 dollars in 2006 is now a 42 person operation on track to bring in $13 million this year.

But if you think that LensRentals has reached a point where it is content to rest on its laurels, you would be wrong. The company has just launched a brand new site, LensAuthority, where it will sell off the used gear it is constantly turning over through the main website.

How to Get Magazine Quality Skateboard Photos with a ‘Light Camera Setup’

Taking high-quality, magazine-worthy skateboarding photos doesn't have to involve you carting around tons of gear. Sure, it might be nice to have the lighting power, but as photographer Matt Price shows you in the How To video above, you can still get great results with only what'll fit in an average camera bag.

Silent Changes: The Subtle Modifications Made to Camera Gear Over Time

Every so often I get an email asking me to jump in on some forum argument or other. I rarely do that because of the language barrier.

Two of the common languages spoken on forums are CAKWAF (Complete, Absolute Knowledge Without Any Facts) and AFIDAWAB (Any Facts I Don’t Agree With Are Bullstuff). Since I am not fluent in those languages, I tend not to get involved in the more, uhm, enthusiastic online discussions. But sometimes I can’t help myself, repeating the behavior of adding facts to a ‘vigorous’ discussion and always expecting a different result.

Lenstag: A Free Online Gear Registry that Aims to End Camera and Lens Theft

Camera equipment has long been attractive to the eyes of thieves. After all, it's generally portable, pricey, and a piece of cake to sell through channels such as Craigslist. In Northern California, robbers have begun targeting photojournalists at gunpoint in order to snatch their gear.

Developer Trevor Sehrer, a Google engineer by day, has been working on a website that aims to help combat the theft of photography gear. It's called Lenstag, and is an online equipment registry that makes it easier to report and track stolen cameras and lenses.

Confessions of an Ex-Gear Addict

Thank God, I am now a gear minimalist focused on photography and a big fan of "limitation creativity" (i.e. you are more creative with less)... But here’s the truth, I used to be a huge gear junkie, basically having Gear Acquisition Syndrome (G.A.S.) as soon as I got a new camera. I had this problem since the very beginning, but now I am cured. In one sense I am trying to help those who know they have G.A.S. to stop having it and trying to prevent others from having it.

Greentoe Lets You Save Some Dough on Camera Gear by Naming Your Own Price

If you're a frugal photographer who's constantly searching for ways to save some dough when buying gear, you might want to look into the new Los Angeles-based startup company Greentoe. It's a shopping site that's trying to turn the e-commerce world on its head by taking pricing power from merchants and putting it into the hands of consumers.

Basically, it's a site that lets you buy camera gear at prices you want to pay.

Hama Announces Wireless Data Reader for iOS Devices, Doubles as a Router

The folks at Hama just announced a new accessory that should make life as an iPad or iPhone toting photographer a bit easier. No, we're not talking about the guys who shoot with their iOS devices; we're talking about the people who use them for on-the-go storage, editing and sharing.

The accessory is simply called the Wi-Fi Data Reader for Apple Devices and it does exactly what its name implies: it allows you to upload photos from USB, SD, SDHC and SDXC to your iPad without plugging anything in.

Conflict Photog Leans on Crowdfunding to Replace Stolen DSLR Gear

While on assignment in the Middle East, war photographer Tracey Shelton had her gear stolen during an attempted kidnapping back in August 2011. As a freelance photojournalist, she didn't have a newspaper's funding to lean back on, and found herself out of several thousand dollars worth of camera gear.

Her work in the Middle East has been nothing short of an inspiration to photojournalists everywhere, but since the theft she's had to borrow gear and use sub par equipment to do her job. And so two recent journalism school graduates have decided to turn to crowdfunding to try and get her properly equipped to do what she does best.

Rhino Battery Holster Lets You Keep Your Camera’s Power at Your Fingertips

Holsters are becoming pretty popular for keeping camera gear on your hip and at the ready, and now Washington-based gear company Rhino Camera Gear wants to bring the concept to batteries. It has unveiled a new product that's designed to cut a few seconds out of the time it takes you to switch out empty batteries for fresh ones.

The accessory is called the Rhino Battery Holster, and moves your juiced batteries from inside your camera bag to your side.

Win a Gura Gear Backpack, Case, Pouch, and Wallet Collection Worth $600+

Update: This giveaway is now over. The winner was randomly selected and announced below.

Alrighty folks! Let's do a giveaway! If you're in need of a way to haul around your large collection of camera gear, this one's for you. We're giving away a massive collection of Gura Gear products: a backpack, three cases, three pouches, and three memory card wallets. The entire collection has a combined retail value of $612.40!

A Simple Camera Gear Stop-Motion Ecard to Usher in 2013

For a New Year's greeting ecard this year, Paris-based photographer Noël Bourcier decided to put his camera equipment to good use, but not in the way you'd expect. He gathered up some of the camera equipment at the EFET School's photography program, recruited a couple of photography students, and turned the equipment into the simple stop-motion ecard seen above.

Transform an Ordinary Sink Filter into a Soft Focus Lens Filter

Photographer Nick Cool came up with one of the strangest pieces of do-it-yourself camera gear that we've seen so far this year. He took an ordinary stainless steel sink filter -- yup, the thing that catches food at the bottom of kitchen sinks -- drilled various-sized holes through it, and stuck it into a filter ring after taking out the glass.

Kenko Filter Stick is like a Lorgnette for Your Camera Lens

You know those handle-equipped glasses called 'lorgnettes' that were popular among fashionable women in the 19th century? Instead of being fixed to your face, the spectacles were simply held up to your eyes with one hand, and were used mainly for style rather than vision correction. Kenko's new Filter Stick is kinda like that, except for camera lenses instead of booshie eyeballs.

University Unloading Its Film Photography Gear At Ridiculous Prices

Clemson University is apparently ditching film photography and going digital. The public South Carolina-based school has just turned to government surplus auctions to unload its analog gear, and the equipment is being snatched up for ridiculously low prices. The lot of 9 "excellent condition" Hasselblad 500 EL/M medium format camera bodies seen above was just sold for $1,200, which comes out to about $133 for each camera (granted, there are some taxes and processing fees tacked on).

Trigger Trap Arrives on Android with New v2 Dongle in Tow

Apple's iPhone and iOS get a lot of media attention, but Google's Android OS is the world's most popular smartphone operating system by a long shot. Given this fact, it makes sense to at least target both markets if you're releasing something that's intended to be widely used. Triggertrap understands this, and today released the Android version of its mobile camera triggering app.

The app is designed to be used with the company's Mobile Dongle, which has also been refreshed. In fact, the new Android app requires the new Dongle, while iPhone users can use either version.

Sekonic Announces the World’s First Touchscreen Light Meters

Cell phones have already gone the way of the touchscreen, so why not light meters? Perhaps they will, starting today. Sekonic has just announced a two new light meters that are the world's first to offer a touchscreen interface. The L-478D and L-478DR both feature a 2.7-inch LCD touchscreen through which settings are changed by tapping or sliding your finger.

Canon’s Drool-Worthy Gear Room at the London Olympics

Welcome to camera gear heaven: here's a glimpse inside the Canon Professional Services office at the London 2012 Olympics. It's a room that's absolutely stuffed with cameras, lenses, and accessories from floor to ceiling. The Canon 1D X hasn't been released to the general public yet, but this room has hundreds of them!

Why I Hate My Camera

Unlike most photographers, I hate my camera. I have read hundreds of stories on the Internet in which photographers argue about which cameras are the best and why. There are stories trying to prove that Canon is better than Nikon, or that 4x5 film is better than medium format digital. Camera review websites show scientific-style photographs displaying how much detail they have captured in a dollar bill, or pictures of color checkers and skin tones. They will also show “real-world” and studio tests illustrating how camera A is better than camera B and write long narratives about why.

Some Thoughts on Digital Camera Lifespan

This small mountain of gear leads to two very frightening thoughts. Firstly, there’s no ending in sight; one keeps accumulating more and more equipment in order to keep pushing the edge of what’s possible both from a compositional and artistic standpoint, as well as from an image quality standpoint. You’ve either got to have a great day job and very deep pockets, or some good recurring clients.

The second thought is around obsolescence. In the film days, the camera body and lenses lasted a long time; you invested in glass, got a decent body – one that fulfilled your personal needs as a photographer – and then picked the right film for the job.

Nikon Expected to Announce New 800mm Lens, the Longest in Lineup

Based on some patents filed by Nikon, the company is expected to announce an updated 800mm lens, which will be the largest lens in the current lineup, according to Nikon Rumors. As of now, the 600mm f/4G ED VR is the longest lens Nikon is offering, though Sigma and Canon both have 800mm f/5.6 lenses in their lineups.

Gear Doesn’t Matter — Except When It Does

If you follow any part of the photographic blogosphere, you’ve heard folks repeat this mantra over and over and over again: “Gear doesn’t matter.”

The basic premise of that dictum is as follows: making great pictures is about the photographer, not the camera or the lens or any other piece of gear. A good photographer can make a great image with a point-and-shoot that an amateur armed with a Nikon D4 and an 85mm f/1.4 lens can’t match.

TrekPak Camera Bag Insert Adjusts with Pins Rather Than Velcro

TrekPak is a new padded camera bag insert that does away with the annoyances of velcro by introducing a new pin system for adjusting dividers:

What makes TrekPak really unique, is that you won’t find any Velcro. When you try to adjust a normal gear bag while out in the field, you know how frustrating it can be. The Velcro sticks where you don’t want it to, is hard to pull apart, and just looks messy and cluttered. Our patent pending system uses anodized aluminum pins and durable padded dividers to offer limitless organizational options. The TrekPak pin system is much easier to adjust, very secure, and straight up, it’s slick.

They're starting with inserts for Pelican camera bags, but are planning to release generic inserts and inserts designed for other bags as well.

DIY Gyroscopic Camera Stabilizer Made On the Cheap

Physics guru David Prutchi recently came across a line of professional grade gyroscopic camera stabilizers by Kenyon Laboratories. They cost thousands of dollars each, but Prutchi noticed that the designs hadn't changed much since they were first patented in the 1950s. He then set out to create his own DIY version using low-cost gyroscopes from Gyroscope.com. His finished device (shown above) actually helps stabilize his DSLR when shooting video or when photographing with non-image-stabilized lenses.

CineSquid: A Suction Cup Tripod System Fit for Spiderman

Last year MIT grad Justin Jensen raised nearly half a million bucks through Kickstarter to launch CineSkates, a camera slider system that adds wheels to GorillaPod Focus tripods. Now Jensen and his startup Cinetics are back again with a new product called CineSquid, which provides a strong suction cup mount system rather than wheels. This allows cameras to be mounted onto things like cars, boats, and even airplanes.