Reviews

Last fall, Fujifilm unveiled its newest medium format camera, the Fujifilm GFX 100 II along with its first tilt-shift lenses and a new fast prime: the Fujifilm GF 55mm f/1.7 R WR.

We've seen 24-105mm lens formulas before and we have seen f/2.8 zooms, too. However, we have never seen the two combined, and it's about time.

The Hasselblad 907X CFV 100C is a fantastic, stylish, and -- perhaps most importantly -- charming camera kit. The camera and digital back combo honor Hasselblad's illustrious analog past while incorporating the company's most modern digital imaging technology.

OnePlus isn’t the kind of company that just goes away, and its persistence may have finally paid off with the OnePlus 12, a very impressive flagship phone that undercuts all others. This phone starts at $800, but trade-in incentives can drop it $100 or more, which feels like a bargain compared to competitors who hover around or above $1,000.

When OM Digital Solutions purchased, and thereby saved, Olympus' incredible photographic history and slate of digital cameras from the brink of collapse in 2021, there were many questions about what would happen to the Olympus Micro Four Thirds system. OM answered these concerns the following year with the OM System OM-1 camera, the most impressive Micro Four Thirds camera ever released at the time.

With the recent release of the Samsung S24 Ultra, North America now has three premium-priced phones that happen to compete in a very similar way against each other. The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, Google Pixel 8 Pro, and Samsung S24 Ultra, all have state-of-the-art displays, HDR-compliant photos and videos, and a 5X telephoto lens to compliment the main and ultra-wide cameras.

No camera is as exciting or interesting as the Sony a9 III. Since Sony announced it in early November, the a9 III has occupied considerable space in my mind. Many questions have swirled since, and the answers to each have proved mercurial.

Even among the now-crowded niche of instant cameras, Leica’s Sofort 2 stands out, representing the idealized version of a modern-day instant camera.

I think one of my favorite things about the current state of the display tablet industry is how there seems to be a non-stop growth of affordable alternatives to the historic "major players" in the game, making it easier and much more justifiable for photographers to make the leap into not just using a pen tablet, but a large and color accurate display version suitable for proper photo editing.

Like the majestic Canada Goose, I escaped a particularly brutal winter by flying south. As temperatures back home plummeted to a balmy -40 degrees, my plane landed in San Jose, California. San Jose is the West Coast convention center capital of the tech world, and Samsung was there for the brand new Galaxy S24 series of smartphones.

The 135mm focal length is one of my favorite portrait ranges due to its compressed rendering of people’s faces, as well as lending itself to stunningly dramatic full-body environmental portraits. Last year saw the release of two new 135mm lenses, one each from Canon and Nikon. Take into account the venerable Sony 135mm G Master and you have all three of the major full-frame mirrorless companies now offering a 135mm f/1.8 lens.

I’ve been in the camera review game for a decade and a half and while the pleasure of checking out new gear hasn’t diminished, it’s very rare for me to be truly excited about a new camera. Well, that happened two years ago with the DJI Ronin 4D release, and now we have an impressive new 8K version to check out.

Many camera manufacturers choose to support, or at least turn a blind eye to, third-party lens makers. Some even wholeheartedly embrace them. However, Canon has infamously taken a stance to deny third-party manufacturers access to its RF mount. The fascinating twist is that many companies were beginning to produce manual and autofocusing lenses before the crack-down, creating an exclusive market of very rare lenses that hit the streets before the curtain fell.

We all have to start somewhere. For most of us, that means a basic DSLR or mirrorless camera kit with a compact, handy general-purpose zoom lens. Undoubtedly, we can't wait to ditch our basic kit lens for something faster or more versatile. A kit lens is something we feel we need to graduate from to call ourselves an accomplished photographer. But is that really the case? Maybe the humble kit lens has more to offer than we think, so today we will look at our five favorite kit lenses of all time.

Jordan and I were naughty this year and Santa put something in our stocking that was less useful than a lump of coal. Naturally, we decided to review our gifts and see if there was any merit to mass-produced photo gear on the cheap.

The Pentax K-3 III Monochrome is among the most affordable cameras designed exclusively for black-and-white photography and a very good APS-C DSLR.

In the early summer of 2023, I had an opportunity to play with the soon-to-be-released Nikon Z8. We met up with the Nikon crew in Yellowstone National Park to photograph some wildlife and the good folks at Nikon also had another surprise for us out there.

I am on what feels like an endless hunt for a backpack, or even set of backpacks, that I actually like to use. I'm looking for comfort, build quality, and maybe a tinge of style. Finding this bag is harder than it sounds, but Shimoda's new Urban Explore comes the closest yet.

The Canon EF 11-24 f/4 L lens was an extremely wide-angle lens that found popularity with DSLR users. Although it could easily be adapted to RF mirrorless cameras, doing so would make its bulky size more cumbersome and it was quite expensive -- but now there is an RF solution.

Tamron has built a reputation for creating some unique focal ranges. Take, for example, the 35-150mm that recently hit the market and really impressed. What might seem at first to be an odd range can end up being very useful. So the same could be expected of the 17-50mm f/4 Di II VXD, right?

The Phase One XC is an unusual camera, and not just because of its $62,490 asking price. It's designed with a specific purpose in mind and it sports a fixed lens in front of a massive 150-megapixel medium format sensor.

The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 skips the smartphone as a capture device and uses an integrated camera, essentially taking the front of a DJI drone and mounting it to a control stick. It is also one of the few creator gimbals I like and love using.

Like most photographers, I’ve never reviewed a piece of gear before. Also like most photographers, I tend to voraciously read reviews each time I consider upgrading. Many of these reviews parse through micro-level analysis of pixel detail, noise levels, and test charts but to me fail to answer the simple question: “will this help me get the shot?”

Where has the time gone? It's been ten years since Jordan and I started our annual roundup of the best and worst products in our industry. Every year we give our opinions on the cameras we feel deserve the top spot as well as any honorable mentions that have also made a positive impression. Perhaps even more exciting, though, is our vote for the most infamous photo and video products of the year.