Review: Yongnuo’s 35mm f/2 Lens for Canon EF Packs a Punch for the Price

When it comes to the world of Nikon and Canon, there seems to be an endless selection of lenses. Recently, the Chinese company Yongnuo has announced that they will be manufacturing lenses for both of these camera giants. Today, we had a chance to play with the company’s latest YN 35mm f/2 lens for Canon EF mount systems. At $120, the lens sounds like a steal compared to its official Canon counterpart, but is it worth even that price?

I Was a Victim of the Fake Negative Review Scam That Targets Photographers

There is currently a scam targeting photographers nationwide. It begins with a threat of false negative reviews if a business owner doesn't pay a "reputation management fee". Whether the business responds or not, the scammers will post many negative reviews then offer to have them removed or pushed down the search results... For a fee, of course.

Kolektio Helps Friends Capture Moments Together in Shared Albums

Kolektio is an application designed to make sharing photographic moments with friends easier than it has ever been before. The app designed for Apple iOS devices (coming soon to Android) allows users to create a ‘moment’ and then contribute snapshots to it. Kolektio wants to make sure that you are never worried about losing another party photo ever again.

We’re Giving Away a $1,500 Gift Card to B&H

Update: This giveaway is now over. Please see the update at the end of this post.

Ready for another awesome photo giveaway? We are too. Let's do it. Today we're giving away a $1,500 gift card to B&H, one of the biggest and baddest camera stores in the world.

The Magic of a Chemical Photo Restoration Process

If given an old print to restore, most photographers these days would probably choose to scan it and fix the image up in Photoshop. Japanese restoration expert Murabayashi Takao uses a different technique: one that involves the magic of chemical processes. Watch and be amazed in the 10-minute video above.

Enrique Iglesias Grabs Camera Drone During Concert, Slices Fingers

Camera drones can be dangerous if not handled properly. Singer Enrique Iglesias found that out the hard way yesterday during a 12,000-fan concert in Tijuana, Mexico. During one song, Iglesias decided to reach up and grab hold of a camera drone hovering above him in order to give the fans a live point-of-view shot. Things didn't go as planned.

What The? Sony is Selling the a7R for $200 Instead of $1,900

Heads up: for some reason the Sony a7R full frame mirrorless camera is currently listed on the Sony Store for $199.99 instead of its regular price of $1,898. This may either be a temporary mistake on Sony's end or one of the best camera deals you'll ever see in your life.

Battle of the Nifty Fifties: Canon’s 50mm f/1.8 Lenses

This year, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, also called the "Nifty Fifty" celebrates its 25th birthday. Yes, that's right: this lens was released back in December 1990 and is the second oldest lens that's still in production. Yet it still dominates the list of the most popular Canon lenses, and for good reason: it's cheap, it's fast, it's small and lightweight, and it offers good performance for the price, which makes it the first prime lens for most Canon owners.

But of course, being such an old lens does have its downsides, so Canon has just released the successor to the old Nifty Fifty: the new Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM.

DIY: Making a Simple but Elegant Leather Hand Strap for a DSLR

I recently went to great lengths to solve a simple problem. I have a Manfrotto monopod that requires a little screw to attach my camera to the monopod. Without it, I can't use it. The screws are cheap and no big deal... but, they are too easy to lose.

JPEG Compression Test: Google Photos vs. JPEGmini

In this article I will take a look at Google Photos' new photo compression performance. I've been using a program called JPEGmini for a couple years now to compress my JPEG images. Its compression of JPEGs is lossy, but it claims to do so leaving the perceptual image quality virtually unchanged. As far as I can tell, its claims are pretty accurate, and it has literally helped me cut the size of some of my picture folders in half.

Before and After Comparisons of the Visual Effects in Mad Max: Fury Road

One of the big Hollywood blockbusters to hit the silver screen this year has been Mad Max: Fury Road, which has gotten rave reviews, with many praising the insane and complex visual design of the film. If you were wondering what some of the shots looked like when they were originally captured on camera, here are some before-and-after comparison images showing those shots next to the final frames after visual effects were applied.

Review: The Nikon D7200 is the More Sensitive and Sociable Sibling of the D7100

Nikon’s D7000 lineup of enthusiast level cameras is currently the highest one can go before moving onto a full-frame FX series body. The company’s latest creation, the Nikon D7200, provides incremental improvements upon the previous model while also upping the standards for low-light performance in enthusiast DSLR camera systems. In a world of connected mobile devices, Nikon has also added WiFi and NFC for smarter access to photographs.

Light Painting with a Giant 2-Foot Ball of Steel Wool

Steel wool is often done by lighting a small ball of steel wool on fire and then swinging it around in a long exposure photo while it burns. But what happens when you take it to the extreme? The folks over at Joby recently decided to see what you get when you burn a giant 2-foot ball of burning steel wool.

SourceForge Accused of Bundling GIMP with Adware

If you've downloaded a copy of GIMP for Windows from SourceForge in recent days, you may want to double check to make sure you didn't get other programs installed as well. Some copies of the "open source Photoshop" were apparently being offered with for-profit adware bundled with the installer.

Opinon: My Thoughts on Google Photos

Google launched Google Photos yesterday.

For months now people have been talking about how Google was going to decouple photos from Google+ and create a standalone photo product, and yesterday at Google's I/O conference they finally unveiled their latest effort to the world.

Photographer Captures the Beauty and Diversity of Australian Fungi

Photographer Steve Axford lives in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, Australia, where he has spent a considerable amount of time exploring the rainforest with his camera in hand. Among his favorite subjects are Australian fungi, which come in countless shapes, sizes, colors, and textures -- diversity that Axford captures in his photos.

What It’s Like to Swim with Millions of Jellyfish

Ongeim'l Tketau, or "Jellyfish Lake," on the island country of Palau is a place you need to add to your underwater photography bucket list. The waters are famous for the millions of jellyfish that migrate across the lake on a daily basis, which provide for incredible views that many have captured on camera.

A man who goes by mikeyk730 recently visited the lake after learning about it four years ago, and he captured the amazing footage above by bringing along a GoPro HERO4 Silver.

The Myth of More (Not Just Another Fuji X100T Review)

I'll say this right up front: what you’re about to read is not a review of the Fujifilm X100T. That’s a good thing, because I’m a lousy camera reviewer. So if that’s what you’re looking for, stop reading right now and hightail it over to one of the many excellent camera review sites instead. You know the ones. Just don’t forget to help support those reviewers’ growing families and camera collections by clicking through to one of their fine sponsoring vendors.

The Google Jump 360° Camera Rig Uses 16 GoPros

Google today announced a new virtual reality system called Jump that uses a special new camera rig created in partnership with GoPro. It's a crazy-looking 360-degree camera array that uses 16 separate GoPro cameras.

The Lumigraphe Lets You Shoot Smartphone Camera Obscura Shots On the Go

If you have ever dreamed of taking photographs through a camera obscura, then we have some great news for you! Former fashion photographer and inventor Valmont Achalme has designed the Lumigraphe, “a camera obscura for your smartphone”. The project is currently on Kickstarter seeking $49,276 with the promise of helping you capture “beautiful effects” starting around $100.

Google Photos Offers Free and Unlimited Storage and Sharing of Your Memories

Google today announced its new and long awaited Photos service, a standalone service that's separate from Google+. It's "a single, private place to keep a lifetime of memories, and access them from any device," Google says.

In short, Google wants to be the place that stores your digital memories safely for the rest of your life and the place from which you share your memories with others.

Happy Birthday, 5D! Canon’s Groundbreaking DSLR Line Turns 10 Today

In the world of photography, every once in a while an anniversary comes around that is worth recognizing. Today, Canon is celebrating the ten-year anniversary of its EOS 5D camera line, which was originally announced on August 22nd, 2005. The original 5D represented a significant evolution in the digital photography market by lowering the bar of entry for photographers interested in full-frame DSLR cameras.

The Lomography Petzval 58 is the First Petzval Bokeh Control Lens

Back in 2013, Lomography resurrected the 19th century Petzval lens for Canon and Nikon DSLRs, creating a modern 85mm version of the classic portrait lens. Today, the company one-upped itself by announcing a followup, the new Petzval 58 Bokeh Control Art lens.

It looks like this new lens is going to be a home run: the company reached its $100,000 goal on Kickstarter in just 3 hours after announcing this lens.

Five Tips to Help You Take Your Street Photography to the Next Level

The art of street photography can be an extremely rewarding experience for photographers who are looking to capture the current state of the human condition. Candid street photography has allowed artists to capture the nature of the world and reflect on how society truly acts when it does believe it is being watched. If you’ve begun your venture into the world of street photography and already have a good handling of the basics, here are some tips to take your work to the next level.

GoPro Camera Drone Will Be Released in 2016

GoPro is officially getting into the camera drone industry. After rumors had been swirling since late last year, GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman announced yesterday that the company is building its own quadcopter, and that the drone is set to launch in the first half of 2016.

This is the ‘Dehaze’ Tool Coming to Lightroom

At Adobe MAX 2014 last October, Adobe gave a tech preview of a new "dehaze" feature that it's currently developing that can seemingly magically remove haze from photos. Above is a new sneak peek video Adobe just posted that shows what's "coming soon to Lightroom CC."

Interview: The Late Mary Ellen Mark on Documenting Seattle’s Street Youth

Documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who has had her photographs featured in publications such as Life, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair, died yesterday in Manhattan, age 75. She has traveled extensively across the globe, photographing everything from celebrities to Indian circus people.

However, it was a photo essay for Life magazine about kids living in the streets of Seattle which became the foundation for the Academy Award-nominated documentary Streetwise, directed by her husband Martin Bell. Soundtracked by Tom Waits, this film is an intoxicating piece of cinema, a captivating portrait of real-life adolescent teenagers growing up and breaking down.

StuckOnz Lets You Stick Your Phone to Solid Surfaces for Easy Self Portraits

StuckOnz may be the perfect solution for capturing your ideal self portrait without the need to carry around a clunky Selfie Stick. The new project on IndieGoGo aims to provide affordable “nano suction for phones, cases, and tablets”. For $5, you will receive a pad that allows you to stick your gizmos onto many different surfaces to help you get that perfect photograph you are seeking.

Chris Burkard on the Joy of Photographing Surfers in Freezing Waters

Chris Burkard is a California-based surf photographer who has shot for some of the biggest companies and publications in the world. After years of shooting on popular, sun-soaked beaches and making a living through his "dream job," Burkard began to yearn for beaches that weren't dominated by tourists and the comforts of civilization. So, he began traveling to remote -- and often frigid -- shores around the world for surf photos that are off the beaten path.

This Telescope Uses 10 Canon Lenses Worth $100,000

Now here's a neat use of Canon's lenses: the University of Toronto owns one of the smallest professional astronomical telescopes in the world that uses an array of photographic camera lenses instead of a single lens. Called the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, it uses ten ordinary Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS II lenses that cost $9,999 each. That's $100,000 in photo gear.