As a landscape and travel photographer, I heavily rely on tripods. After making a number of wrong purchasing decisions early on in my photography career, I realized that a solid tripod and tripod head are very important – sometimes even more important than choosing a camera or a lens. A poor tripod setup can create many headaches and really mess up images, and tripod heads play a big part of that. Many cheap tripod heads sag even after they are…
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Fuji GFX 50S Review
Both Hasselblad and Fuji got quite a bit of buzz in 2016 when they introduced the first mirrorless medium format cameras. The Hasselblad X1D-50c stole the show with its beautiful design, compact build and leaf shutter lenses, whereas the GFX 50S got Fuji fans excited with its functional camera body, modular EVF, tiltable LCD screen and a lower price point. Both cameras compete head to head when it comes to image quality, since they feature a very similar 44x33mm sensor,…
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iPhone 7 Plus Camera Review
Less than a year ago, Apple introduced the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus phones to the market. The iPhone 7 Plus was the first Apple phone to have a dual lens design (28mm wide-angle and 56mm telephoto equivalent), so Apple put quite a bit of emphasis on photography with this model. Although I was quite happy with my iPhone 6 Plus at the time of the announcement, I decided to upgrade to the latest version, primarily because of these…
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Hasselblad X1D Review
Hasselblad created quite a bit of buzz when it released the Hasselblad X1D-50c in June of 2016. With its 44x33mm image sensor, 2.36 MP electronic viewfinder (EVF), dual SD card slots, 3″ touchscreen LCD, built-in Wi-Fi, leaf shutter, a super lightweight construction weighing only 725 grams with a battery and a very compact size, the X1D looked absolutely stunning both in terms of its specifications and its stylish design. Hasselblad priced the camera at $8,999 MSRP at introduction, which when…
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Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G DX VR AF-P Review
In this in-depth field review, we are going to have a look at the Nikon telezoom DX lens the Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED VR, which was launched in August of 2016. This is one of the three existing DX lenses featuring the new AF-P abbreviation, along with the Nikkor 18-55mm (VR and non-VR versions) and the new Nikkor 10-20mm VR wide-angle lens. AF-P stands for a new piece of technology – a pulsing / stepping focusing motor.
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QNAP TVS-882T Review
It is a fact that as content creators, we are always in need for more storage. Thanks to all the latest and greatest cameras on the market that offer incredible detail with their high resolution sensors, we find ourselves constantly reassessing our storage requirements. Old computers are getting too slow to handle all the media and data we have to deal with, while storage solutions that used to be good enough a few years back do not seem to cut…
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Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E FL VR Review
This is an in-depth review of the flagship Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens that was released in October of 2016. Every seven to ten years, Nikon updates its top-of-the-line lenses with the most current technology and tries to push the performance envelope to a whole new level. After a long wait, Nikon finally delivered the new generation 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR in a lighter and more versatile package. Nikon completely redesigned the lens from the…
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Nikon 19mm f/4E PC Review
This is an in-depth review of the Nikon 19mm f/4E PC, also known as PC NIKKOR 19mm f/4E ED, a special purpose wide-angle lens designed for architecture, cityscape and landscape photography. “PC” stands for “Perspective Control”, but I will refer to this type of lens as “tilt-shift” in this article. Architecture and cityscape photographers often work with straight lines and tilt-shift lenses give the ability to avoid the convergence of vertical lines by shifting the lens upwards or downwards. Landscape…
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Palette Gear Expert Kit Review
In this article, I’m going to review the Palette Gear Expert Kit. This is a control surface that consists of buttons, dials and sliders, all of which are meant to be used with a variety of photo and video editing programs. They can also be used with everyday computer operation such as web browsers and operating systems. Personally, I use it with Lightroom for working with photos, Premiere Pro for working with videos, and Chrome for web browsing.
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FotodioX Nikon F to Fuji GFX 50S Adapter Review
This is a quick review of the FotodioX Nikon F to Fujifilm G-mount adapter, which allows mounting Nikon G-type lenses on the new Fuji GFX 50S camera. While it is always ideal to use native lenses on any camera system, the idea of using a lens from a different camera system on a mirrorless camera can be appealing for a number of reasons. Aside from potential savings, one can take advantage of the mirrorless technology (see mirrorless vs DSLR for…
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Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 G2 Review
When Tamron introduced the Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 VC a few years ago it really shook things up (Model A011, but hereafter I’ll call it the G1 for simplicity). Priced just over a grand, the G1 offered people the chance to get into wildlife photography without dumping five figures into a supertelephoto prime lens. Not only was it inexpensive, it was surprisingly sharp as well; much sharper than many of us expected a lens in that price range to be.…
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Fuji X-Pro2 Review
This is an in-depth review of the Fuji X-Pro2 mirrorless camera, an upgrade to the top-of-the-line X-Pro1 of the X-series cameras that was announced in January of 2016. It is hard to believe that it has been five years since Fuji first announced its mirrorless X system with the launch of the Fuji X-Pro1, along with the first three lenses. It was a pretty rough ride for Fuji, since the system looked very appealing and yet the initial feedback and…
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Fuji X-T2 Review
This is an in-depth review of the Fuji X-T2, a second generation mirrorless camera in its class that was announced in July of 2016 as a replacement of the X-T1. It has been a few years since the Fujifilm X-T1 shook the photography world when it was announced, thanks to its amazing ergonomics, superb autofocus system, great image quality and a strong line of lenses, making the X-T1 one of the most desirable mirrorless cameras on the market. It took…
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JPEGmini Server Review
After I had a chance to test and review the JPEGmini Pro software, I realized how powerful this software is not just for exporting images and being part of a Lightroom workflow, but also for many other uses, including optimizing images that are already sitting on our large storage devices. Another use I immediately thought of, was the web server where Photography Life traffic originates from. Given how much traffic PL serves worldwide on a day-to-day basis and the fact…
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Nikon 105mm f/1.4E Review
Ever since it was introduced back in 1993, the DC Nikkor 105mm f/2 DC has been a classic – it was one of the most favored lenses for film portrait photographers and when digital came about, many photographers continued using the stellar lens to create stunning portraits. It took Nikon 23 years to bring out an update in the form of the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED – a drastically different lens in every way. Although Nikon decided to…
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Nikon 85mm f/1.4G Review
This is an in-depth review of the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G AF-S lens that was announced with three other lenses in August of 2010. Ever since the manual focus AI-s version of the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens was introduced back in 1981, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lenses have been used as references for superb sharpness, best-looking bokeh and beautiful color renditions. The last autofocus AF-D version of the lens produced in 1995, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D, was often called the “king…
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Nikon 24-120mm f/4G VR Review
This is an in-depth review of the Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED VR lens that was released in August of 2010. The constant maximum aperture, mid-range Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR zoom lens was a major update to the Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G VR, which had been known at the time for being a sub-par lens optically. Shortly after the 24-120mm f/4G VR was announced, Nikon discontinued its variable-aperture predecessor and made the 24-120mm f/4G VR into a premium kit lens to be…
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Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E VR Review
It took Nikon nine years to finally release an update to its popular workhorse standard zoom lens in the form of the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR, which gained a few new features compared to its predecessor, including the much desired image stabilization. Nikon engineers have always put extra effort and emphasis on updated professional-grade lens designs, typically delivering outstanding performance. However, the release of the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR lens has been one of the most controversial in…
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Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G Review
This is an in-depth review of the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens that was released back in August of 2007 together with the 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens. I have owned a number of different copies of the Nikon 24-70mm for many years, pretty much from the day the lens was announced and I have probably spent the most amount of time in the field shooting with this lens. Since it is a workhorse pro-level lens, I have used it for…
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NiSi Filter System Review
For most photographers, especially those who shoot landscapes, it is crucial to have a good set of filters at your disposal. Filters come in two types: screw-on filters (attaching directly to your filter threads) and square filter systems (sliding into a holder on the end of your lens). A lot of landscape photographers move to a square filter system over time — they have a wider selection of filters, and they let you move your filters from lens to lens…
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