Equipment

Drone photography is the next time-lapse (which, incidentally, was the next HDR), but it presents a challenge that the previous two styles never did: safety. In this particular case we don't mean safety of the people around (or rather below) you, but rather the safety of your gear itself.

As we've seen time and again, drones drop from the sky on occasion, and when they do, they rarely survive the journey south... Until now. A new product called DJI DropSafe aims to change all that.

Raymundo Panduro of Pixel Análogo recently created the camera above, which he calls the "Pinolga". It's a realistic pinhole Holga medium format camera made out of cardboard that can take pretty impressive photographs.

With each passing week it seems as though a new piece of information is coming out about Sony’s latest curved sensor technology. First it was the rumor, then the specs for a 2/3” sensor, then the first image captured with said sensor. Finally, the leaks and patterns are starting to align to form the constellation that will likely be the advent of Sony’s curved sensor tech in consumer products.

The verdict is in, again. After giving Nikon’s D810 a spin, DxOMark has officially declared the D800 successor the king of sensors. While the improvements to the mid-term update may seem marginally small, DxOMark reports these minor tweaks provide “an excellent result” in improvements.

Late last night, Fuji released an updated version of its lens roadmap, switching some things around, adding a lens to the lineup, naming the 'ultra-wide angle lens' from the previous roadmap, and otherwise letting X-Mount shooters know what they're in for glass-wise through the end of 2015.

And what they're in for, by the looks of it, is lots and lots of bokeh.

Leica and Hasselblad should take a page out of Ricoh's book: when you release a limited-edition camera, you don't slap a hello kitty sticker or some fancy wood on it. You do what Ricoh did with the limited-edition Pentax K-3 'Prestige' and cover the thing in gunmetal.

Make no mistake, this K-3 can beat up your K-3... or pretty much any other DSLR you own.

In what we would call a semi-confirmation, Canon recently made mention of the high megapixel EOS camera that we had been hearing so much about the past couple of years before 7D Mark II rumors swept talk of any other Canon camera out of the public eye.

Sick of wiping and blowing dust off your lens filter? Check out Hoya's new line of EVO Antistatic lens filters, which actively repel dust particles to keep them from sticking to the glass.

Who said you have to drop big bucks to have some high-speed fun? Well, it definitely wasn't Joey Shanks, who recently decided to show the Phantom users out there that they’re not the only ones who can do it.

To do this, Shanks rented a Casio EX-F1 high speed camera for a week. Costing him only $100, he combined its high frame-rate with a healthy dose of water and gunpowder to create some interesting high-speed footage with minimal investment.

Bullet time isn't anything new, but where most of the recent examples show how you can use relatively inexpensive phones or GoPros to create the effect, this BTS video shows how Canon helped put together a crazy bullet time photo shoots that went radically in the other direction.

The consumer end of underwater photography is tricky. The pros have expensive underwater housings for their expensive DSLRs, but consumers are stuck with semi-affordable compacts that suffer from some glaring limitations, among them the ability to zoom.

Canon, it seems, is keen to fix this limitation with a newly-patented zoom lens for an underwater camera that will offer an impressive 45x optical zoom.

We've heard a lot about Sony's ready-for-production curved sensors -- which will supposedly come in 2/3-inch and full-frame variants -- but no concrete specs had made their way online... until now.

Reported initially by CNbeta, the site has obtained a copy of specs for the 2/3-inch variant of the exciting sensor and the accompanying lens, which is itself an impressive piece of hardware by the looks of it.

This image shows what you get when you put a high-end Canon DSLR kit under a medical X-Ray machine.

MIOPS is a new smartphone-controlled camera trigger created by the minds behind the Nero Trigger. Looking to get financed through Kickstarter, the team behind it hopes to combine all of the features users want in a high-speed camera trigger into one convenient device.

As the saying goes, quality lenses are a lot more important than good bodies when it comes to investing in camera gear. They last longer, retain their value more, and have more utility overall than, say, buying the latest DSLR that will become obsolete in 3 to 5 years. But if you are into photography for the first time, you’ll likely buy an entry level camera that comes bundled with an inferior, even crappy, kit lens. Or is it?

Do you really need quality gear to take good pictures? Spend thousands of dollars on red/golden rings lenses?

It's a day heavy with beautiful Leica news. First, we shared the photos and story behind this one-of-a-Kind Leica M4 that you can't have, and now we've caught wind of another iconic Leica that is going up for sale (and is probably just as unattainable for most of us).

What makes this Leica (a Leica III, to be exact) special isn't some particular one-of-a-kind design, it's the fact that this is the actual camera used by photographer Yevgeni Khaldei to take his iconic Raising a Flag Over The Reichstag photograph in 1945.

Besides the dreaded vertical video, the worst thing about capturing video on a smartphone is camera shake, which leaves your video looking rather jerky and chaotic at times. Most stabilization rigs are built with much larger cameras in mind, but ADPLUS Co. is looking to change that with their ‘ultra-small’ Elephant Steady stabilizer for the iPhone.

Nothing like a little bit of gear porn to get you through hump day. But don't worry, it's... like... super classy gear porn. All 'hump day' and 'gear porn' word play jokes aside, this gorgeous one-of-a-kind Leica M4 is truly a work of art... and you can't have it.

Phantom, the company behind some insane high-speed cameras has announced their new flagship camera, the Phantom v2511. Bumping up the specs across the board from their current flagship device, this beast manages to pack in up to 25,600 frames per second at 1280 x 800 resolution (just over 720p).

Photo bogs are always speculating what the next 'megapixel war' will be. For high-end cameras, it seems the answer to that question is the high ISO war, but for the entry-level shooters, an argument could be made for a 'burst mode war.'

Case in point, Ricoh just debuted the Pentax XG-1: a new entry-level superzoom that packs in some serious speed and reach, while hobbling the camera in other areas.

If you've been following the torrent of rumors surrounding the upcoming Canon 7D replacement, you know that one of the major pieces of info floating around is that the Mark II will sport 'revolutionary' sensor technology.

What that is, however, is still a mystery -- for most of us, anyway.

The Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens first debuted in 1998... 1998! In November that'll be sixteen years on the market without a replacement, and while lenses aren't typically replaced as frequently as camera bodies, hope that Canon would manufacture a 'sequel' to the trusty old lens still runs strong.

Well, those hopeful hearts now have something to rejoice about, because the Canon Rumors has received a concrete tip that the 100-400mm followup will indeed be arriving alongside the 7D Mark II just in time for Photokina in September.

When it comes to well-designed camera accessories, one company that is continuously at the top of their game is Peak Design. You probably know them for their popular Peak Capture Camera clip, but soon you’ll know them for a new piece of gear: The Peak Slide and Clutch.

Digital photo frames never really gained the attention of the masses. Due to issues like sub-par hardware and complicated, proprietary software, the photo frame of the digital age never quite took off.

While not the first company to enter the speedbooster game, Fotodiox is turning some heads and dropping some jaws with their newly-released Fotodiox Excell +1 speedbooster.

Designed in two models -- a Nikon F version and a Canon FD glass version -- the Excell +1 lets you slap your ‘old’ glass on your MFT body and gives you an extra stop of light for about a third of the price of the competition.

The closer we get to Photokina the more excited we're becoming. Canon will supposedly unveil the 7D Mark II (among other things), Sigma supposedly has several lenses up its sleeve, we might see the next ZEISS Otus lens, and now, we're also hearing talk of a Fuji X100S successor making an appearance with some significant upgrades.

Polarizing filters are a piece of gear that some photographers swear by and others don't touch. One reason why might be the various misconceptions and misunderstandings surrounding what polarizing filters do and what benefit they truly provide.

Like a lot of photo history buffs, I’ve been quite excited about Lomography’s new iteration of the Petzval lens in …

Light-painting started out as a very DIY genre of photography. Using flashlights, steel wool, sparks, LEDs, rope lights and many amalgamations of all of the above, photographers have created some interesting contraptions to spice up their work.

And now, well-known Montreal-base light painter Patrick Rochon (who we've featured a number of times) has set out to create a contraption of his very own.

It was inevitable, really. With the advent of front-facing cameras, we should’ve known that eventually a phone would put as much, if not more, emphasis on the front-facing camera as the one in the rear.

The new Sony Xperia C3 is that phone. In an attempt to draw in the selfie-addicted generation, Sony’s latest Xperia C3 touts a wide-angle 5-megapixel front-facing camera with a built-in ‘soft' LED flash.

Well, I have to admit this has been a fun series. I’ve learned a whole lot. That’s what makes this so fun -- I get some results I don’t understand, get some help figuring out what is going on, and before I know it, I’ve learned something that explains other things I haven’t been able to understand.

According to Nikon Japan, the official D810 ship date is now set for July 17th, but it seems that some lucky users have already started receiving their cameras.

Typically, slow motion video translates into lower resolution -- when you're pulling hundreds upon hundreds of frames per second, the size of each of those files is a big limiting factor. Enter the Phantom Flex4K, a camera that debuted last year and can shoot RAW 4K video at a blazing-fast 1000 frames per second for 5 second bursts.

And speaking of 'blazing,' the video above was the first test footage released that showed what this amazing camera could do.

If you have a friend who just got into photography and they ask you to recommend a first lens to buy in addition to the standard kit lens, chances are very good you're going to tell them to go prime. Of course, their next question will inevitably be 'why?'

The desire for more info and leaks about Canon's upcoming EOS 7D Mark II (possibly not called that) is strong, and the image above is a good case in point. Spotted by a Northlight Images reader, the camera circled in red is always seen at the same spot on the pitch and is always covered up, despite the fact that every other camera is uncovered.

Award-winning filmmaker Philip Bloom recently got his hands on the new A7s, and as part of his ongoing review of the newest mirrorless full-frame offering from Sony, he put it to the test in low-light to see how it compared to approximately 520 million years of eyeball evolution.

A couple of weeks ago I got an email asking if we would be willing to take some lenses, remove the electronics, fix the aperture wide-open, and permanently lock them at infinity focus. It seems the person who needed this done was having trouble finding a legitimate repair shop or service center that was willing to do it.

Well, illegitimate is our specialty, so I started negotiations about just how exorbitant a fee we would charge for this work. We quickly arrived at a fair price (no money, but we get to take pictures) and yesterday received brand new copies of the Canon 100mm f/2 and Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art to work on. If you’re the kind of person who slows down to view car wrecks or spent $200 on fireworks for the 4th of July holiday, you might like this.

Released in an article earlier today, what you see above is the first photograph taken with Sony's revolutionary curved sensor. And while you can't really tell much about the quality or any other specifics about the sensor from it, it's still exciting to see that this tech isn't just schematics on a piece of paper -- it's real and it works.

One of the hopes people had for the Nikon D810 was that it would feature 4K video, but even though Nikon made it obvious in the press materials that this camera is a capable video machine, the rumored 4K capability never came to fruition.

You can understand, then, why we'll suggest you take this next rumor with a grain of salt. Nothing like getting our hopes up only to have them dashed.

When we announced the Panasonic FZ1000, we told you why many saw it as a Sony RX10 'killer.' Priced $400 cheaper and boasting a newer 1-inch 20.1-megapixel sensor and longer-reaching 16x 25-400mm equivalent f/2.8-4.0 lens, there were a lot of reasons for Sony to be worried... oh, and the Panasonic shoots 4K as well.

Now, quite possibly in response to all of the Panasonic talk and the competition they're anticipating from this new camera, Sony has dropped the list price of the RX10 by a whopping $300.

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of the company that goes by the name MS Optical, and we won't blame you. It’s a one-man operation, run by Mr. Sadayasu Miyazaki from Honcho, Japan. But you might want to take not of them now.

Specializing in unique lens designs, MS Optical focuses on creating small pancake lenses for the Leica M Mount. But MS Optical’s latest creation leaves the 'pancake' title in the dust... this thing should be called a crepe lens.

Are you sick of living life in the first person? Do you sometimes wish your day-to-day activities could be viewed as an incredibly realistic RPG? Well, you’re in luck. With the help of Oculus Rift and a dual camera setup, mepi has just what you need to get started.

It's shaping up to be quite a year at Photokina in Germany, with Leica, Sigma and now Canon all expected to drop some serious equipment at the expo. The Canon news comes by way of Canon Rumors, who got wind from a known source that both the 7D Mark II (or whatever the replacement will be called) and a new telephoto lens will both officially arrive in September.

GoPros are popular little action cams. Between the company's brilliant marketing and the well-liked hardware, it’s not difficult to see why they decided to go public. But as impressive as the little cameras may be, they do have their limits. Most notably: the lack of exposure controls when it comes to capturing something.

To help combat that problem and also spice up the action cam footage being captured, Lee Filters has announced a new line-up of holders and filters for GoPro’s latest Hero models.

The video-capable medium format Pentax 645z boasts 76 weather seals that make it cold-resistant, dustproof and weather-resistant... but just how "dustproof" and "weather-resistant" are we talking here?

It seems Sony is intent on capturing that segment of the market that would like a Leica but can't afford one. First, the company released the A7 and A7r, full-frame mirrorless cameras that were the first in the world with autofocus. And now, if rumors are to be believed, they're working on a black-and-white only version of the fixed-lens Full Frame RX 1.

Sigma raised some eyebrows when they announced their upcoming DP Quattro cameras with their new Foveon Sensor and... unique... design. But even with eyebrows raised, at $1,000, the overhead for investing in this new and interesting tech might be a bit steep for some.

In hopes of convincing these people that the camera is worth the investment, Sigma has announced a new “Try Before You Buy” program that will put the funky looking shooter in the hands of at least a few curious souls.

The light field photography market may soon get a little more crowded and competitive according to an exciting Sony patent that promises to not simply copy, but improve upon the technology made famous by Lytro.

It’s not often a piece of photographic history as important as this goes up for auction. What you see above is the Arca Swiss 4x5 camera that Ansel Adams used between 1964 and 1968. Set to be auctioned off with a plethora of old Leicas by Revival Auction Company, this item is very highly regarded because it may be the first of Ansel Adams cameras to be auctioned off.

We wouldn't exactly describe it as 'elegant,' but this little DIY project by Instructables user pizzidave is both functional and extremely easy to make. Requiring almost no DIY 'skill' of any kind, you can create a cool background and grid diffuser for yourself using some plastic bottles and rubber bands.