Lomography has launched its Kickstarter campaign for the Nour Triplet 64mm f/2 Bokeh Control Art Lens. Available for Canon RF, Nikon Z and Sony E-mount cameras, the unusual lens promises users the ability to capture three distinct image styles in a single lens.
Pergear has announced a new $129 35mm f/1.4 full-frame manual focus lens for Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z, and Leica L mounts.
Venus Optics recently released the $299 Laowa 10mm f/4 "Cookie" lens, a super-compact prime for APS-C cameras that is practically small enough to fit in your pocket even when mounted on a camera.
In a world of increasing automation, at least photography still offers the opportunity to stay alert, active, and in command. While intimidating at first, shooting in full manual mode provides creative control, proper metering in tricky light, and deeper integration into the entire process of making photos. If you give it time, manual photography can help you craft your best images.
In the last few years, Chinese lens manufacturer Venus Optic has released a plethora of versatile, unique, and affordable fast aperture lenses for most camera systems on the market. Today the company has officially launched the latest lens in the Argus lineup, the Laowa Argus 45mm f/0.95 FF -- one of the first full frame 45mm lenses with a maximum aperture of f/0.95.
Nikon has published three videos that cover the various parts and features of the company's new flagship camera. Shared through its Digitutor YouTube Channel, the videos are some of the closest and most detailed looks yet at many features.
TTArtisan has announced a new $235 50mm f/1.4 lens for multiple full-frame mirrorless systems: Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF, and Leica L.
Nikon has announced the Z fc, a DX-format (crop sensor) camera that combines the latest mirrorless technology with a vintage design and "manual" functionality. The new camera is compact and lightweight that Nikon argues makes it a fantastic "everyday" system.
The $449 Petzval 55mm f/1.7 Mark II Bokeh Control Art Lens from Lomography is the first Petzval lens designed specifically for full-frame mirrorless camera systems like the Nikon Z, Canon RF, and Sony E. It's also fantastic.
Just over a year ago, Lomography launched the 180th Anniversary Edition of the Petzval 80.5mm f/1.9 MKII Bokeh Control Art Lens which promised a bevy of improvements over its 85mm predecessor. It looked as though it would put a historic lens back in the hands in creatives at an affordable $549 price. So does it?
Venus Optics' Laowa lenses have been growing in both notoriety and popularity over the last few years thanks to their nearly constant stream of new and interesting optics for a wide variety of mounts. The company's latest is backed by the high-quality promise of its new Argus line: the Laowa Argus 33mm f/0.95 CF APO for APS-C systems.
Meike is on a budget lens tear. After releasing a fully manual 50mm f/1.2 for under $400, and an autofocus 85mm f/1.8 for less than $200, they just today unveiled an even cheaper lens. The new Meike 25mm f/1.8 APS-C lens for the Nikon Z-Mount is just $75.
If you own a DSLR and have a passion for photography, you have landed in the right place. A lot of people are under the common misconception that buying a new DSLR camera will instantly improve their photography. They place an order, and a few days later, their new, shiny toy arrives on their doorstep. Then things usually get tricky.
Wet plate photography master Markus Hofstaetter—a frequent guest author on PetaPixel—recently embarked on another photography experiment. Using pebbles of sandarac resin, he made his own Renaissance-era varnish for his finished wet plates.
A leaked page that is allegedly from a Nikon camera manual is "confirming" what previous rumors had already indicated: That Nikon is working on a 60MP full-frame mirrorless camera, and that this camera will be able to shoot 16-bit NEF raw files.
Getting a proper exposure means that you’re letting enough light through the lens and onto your sensor/film to capture your subject and the environment. To achieve a proper exposure, you’ll have to balance shutter speed, aperture, and ISO according to your purpose. The key word there is “purpose.”
Just starting out in photography and want to learn the basics of shooting in full manual mode? Photographer Josh Collins made this helpful basic 11.5-minute tutorial that discusses the three corners of the Exposure Triangle -- aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
If you've been wanting to learn more about using your camera in manual mode and have 26 minutes to spare, here's a helpful educational video by photographer Sean Tucker that's just for you. He teaches how to nail exposure using manual mode.
Say hello to Reflex, a new 35mm SLR camera that just launched on Kickstarter. It's the first newly designed manual SLR system camera in over 25 years.
Simon Roberts, a London-based animator and designer, has created a great photography resource for beginners that is both simple and useful. It's called Photography Mapped, and it allows you to play around with and better understand the manual settings you'll find on a DSLR.
Some photos of and a user manual for the upcoming GoPro Hero 5 have allegedly leaked online, showing a camera that looks like a hybrid between the Hero 4 and Hero Session cameras, will focus heavily on GoPro's upcoming cloud service 'GoPro Plus,' and may feature voice commands.
Many of us started photography quite innocently— with small compact point-and-shoots, a smartphone, or a disposable film camera. The main advantage was that we didn’t need to think about all the technical settings when we made images—rather, we focused on capturing the “decisive moment”, the framing and composition as well as the emotional content within the frame.
Back in February, Pentax announced its first full-frame DSLR, the K-1. The camera, which has some pretty nifty and novel features and fantastic weathersealing, won't start shipping until late April. If you want a look at what the camera can do, the operating manual has appeared online.
Cheap lens aficionado Mathieu Stern just released this 2-minute video review of the Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2 lens.
If you've always wanted to play around with the idea of using a Leica M rangefinder but don't want to shell out the cash, Lifelike Apps has a new app for you. Called Red Dot Camera, the iOS app aims to bring the feel of a Leica camera to your iPad or iPhone; it was “inspired by the retro craftsmanship of the classic M camera series” and does “without the interference of gimmicky filters.”
On April 28th, 2015, LG will be unveiling its new flagship smartphone, the G4. From the teasers that have been released by the company so far, it's clear that one of the primary focuses of the new phone is its camera. LG says it will have an f/1.8 lens, excellent color accuracy, and full manual controls for advanced shooting.
As beneficial as the more automated style of photography can be at times, nothing quite compares to the control and connection you feel when shooting fully manual. This, however, is not always an easy task... especially when just starting out.
Enter a handy, incredibly detailed little infographic that will make sure you or your beginner photography friends can find their way around no problem.
The now-public iOS 8 brings about a number of updated features that give users more control than ever before, and one of the most talked-about ones is the ability for developers to integrate full manual control of the camera into their applications.
A number of major camera apps have already done that, but there’s a new app out that focuses on full manual controls and full manual controls alone: it’s called (go figure) Manual, and without any extra bells or whistles, it emphasizes giving you complete control over you iOS device’s camera without any other distractions.
ProCam 2 is out and ready for download today alongside iOS 8, and it has the distinction of being the first camera app to utilize the full manual controls Apple opened up to developers in iOS. And while the interface might be a doozy for some, it packs quite the punch in a little package.
After a week packed with photo and info leaks about this mysterious line of lenses, ZEISS officially pulled the cover off of its Loxia line of manual focus lenses for the Sony full-frame E-Mount a7, a7R and a7S cameras.
One of the biggest photography-related additions to iOS 8 is the opening of Camera APIs to developers. Access to these APIs means third party developers are now given complete access to the camera in your iOS device. Most notably, this includes the addition of full manual control of camera settings, something that hasn't been discussed in too much detail... until now.
Joshua Ho over at AnandTech has written up a solid piece properly going through the minute details of what it is developers have been given access to and how it may affect photo apps available after iOS 8's pending debut.
While many exciting things were anticipated to come from Apple’s WWDC Keynote today, there were a number of photography-related announcements that went above and beyond what we were hoping for. Apple has really opened the door for developers to go crazy when it comes to creating and improving camera apps.
When it comes to the type of glass used in still photography, versus the glass used in motion picture, there’s quite a dramatic difference in design, quality and price. Quite often, it's the last of those differences that is the most inhibiting for photogs who want to dabble around in motion picture.
To help ease that transition, Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter has broken down a way in which you can convert still photography lenses into psuedo-cine lenses at minimal cost.
Earlier this week, we got a close look at how Sony's upcoming "lens cameras" will look, thanks to a set of leaked press photos, and now we have a better idea of how they'll work, thanks to some leaked owner's manual pages.
Rumors emerged earlier this week that Sony is planning to announce a followup to its popular RX100 large sensor compact camera by the end of this month. Those rumors got a huge boost in credibility today after pages from the camera's Japanese instruction manual were leaked onto the web.
Samsung's upcoming NX1100 has been leaked... by the company itself. Samsung Germany published the camera's full manual this week. While that download page has since been taken offline, an English version of the manual still remains on Samsung USA's website at the time of this post. The manual reveals that the camera will be a minor refresh of the NX1000, which hit store shelves less than a year ago in April 2012.
Want to estimate proper exposures without a light meter and don't mind doing some simple arithmetic? Check out this wonderful Exposure Time Tables pocket reference that was published Zeiss Ikon.
We were just able to get some hands-on time with the new Fujifilm X100s immediately after the company's press conference. In addition to blazin' fast autofocus speed, the company has also introduced a couple of new features that manual-focusing photographers will love.
One is something many photographers are already familiar with (and have been clamoring for): focus peaking. The second hasn't been received with as much fanfare, but is actually quite fantastic. It's split image focusing -- something rangefinder users will appreciate very much.
In the beginning of last month, Nokia was caught faking sample photos and footage in a promo video for the camera on its new Lumia 920 phone. A couple of weeks later, bogus information about camera sensors was found on the official website for Hasselblad's new Lunar mirrorless camera. This week, we have a new episode of "camera marketing fail" for you, this time brought to you by Phase One.
Lytro's light field camera began hitting store shelves around the world today, and to celebrate, the company announced a couple of upgrades to the camera: manual new colors and manual controls.