Fstoppers

Phone-based content creation has moved well past quick behind-the-scenes clips. Photographers are now shooting more polished promo videos with their phones on a regular basis. That workflow shift changes what your phone needs to be capable of, and internal storage and speed are usually the first barriers. A high-quality portable SSD is worth investing in to help your phone keep up with demands. 

[Read More]

An ultra-wide lens can make a landscape feel like you're standing inside it, or it can shrink a dramatic scene into a flat strip of distant shapes. The difference usually comes down to where you put your feet and how you aim the camera, which makes it one of the hardest lenses to use well and one of the most rewarding once you get the hang of it.

[Read More]

At $2,199 for the body alone, plus roughly $500 more if you want the optional electronic viewfinder, the Sigma fp II asks a lot for a camera with no mechanical shutter and no in-body stabilization. Sigma bills it as the world's smallest full frame camera, and if you carry a camera all day through crowded streets or up a mountainside, that size decides how often the camera leaves the bag at all.

[Read More]

Nikon's NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S is the biggest, heaviest, and most expensive lens in a series that was supposed to be the lighter, more affordable side of the S-line. Six years after its release, it still has almost no native autofocus competition at 20mm and f/1.8 on Z mount, so how it performs today decides whether you get a bright ultra-wide prime at all without reaching for an adapter.

[Read More]

Viltrox's 28mm "Chip" showed that an autofocus lens barely thicker than a body cap could make a full frame camera feel close to pocketable, and now TTArtisan has a $99 lens that follows the same design almost line for line. With matching prices, nearly identical dimensions, and the same sliding front cover, the TTArtisan 24mm f/3.8 Mini AF has to earn its place through image quality and handling, since it can't stand out on looks.

[Read More]

On February 17, 2005, Leica Camera AG issued a Verlustanzeige, the notice German stock law requires once a company has lost half its share capital and has to say so to its shareholders. Four days later, it told the market that its banks had partially canceled its credit lines. The fiscal year closed at the end of March on group sales of €92.1 million and a consolidated loss of €18.1 million.

[Read More]

The JBL 305P MkII is down to $99 per speaker, 41% off its $169 list price, and it's the studio monitor I ended up recommending as the best speaker for the money after testing six of them on my desk. 

[Read More]

For the last few months, I've been doing something that has completely changed how I run my businesses. I set up agentic AI to handle the parts of business I've always hated: email, bills, bookkeeping, taxes, client follow-ups and advertising. It watches everything, it never forgets anything, and when it needs me, it asks a quick question and I tap an answer. 

I'm turning that system into software that I'll be selling, but before it launches, I'm giving it away 100% free to a small group of beta testers.

[Read More]

You have decided to transition from DSLR to mirrorless, and that should feel exciting, with a whole new way of shooting waiting for you. Changing systems does mean planning around the cost, but you may already own more of the funding than you realize. The DSLR kit sitting in your bag can pay for a good part of the switch, and how you sell it decides how smooth the whole process feels.

[Read More]

If you shoot Fujifilm and want the classic 85mm-equivalent portrait look at f/1.2, you have two serious, fully weather-sealed choices, and at B&H, one costs about half as much as the other. The Fujifilm XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR and the Viltrox AF 56mm f/1.2 Pro cover one of the most-used focal lengths in the system, and the gaps between them are smaller and odder than a spec sheet suggests.

[Read More]

A 28mm lens sits in an awkward spot between the 24mm and 35mm primes most people already own, and that in-between position is what makes it useful when you film yourself in a small room. If you record talking-head videos, tutorials, or product demos in a spare bedroom or home office, your focal length decides how much of the room shows up, how your face is rendered, and how close the camera has to sit to you.

[Read More]

Layered ridgelines, each one a shade paler than the one in front of it, are among the most sought-after images in mountain landscape work, and they depend on haze, cloud, and low-angle light that no one can schedule. Getting them usually means showing up at the same summit again and again, often before dawn, with no promise that the sky will cooperate.

[Read More]

Most full frame cameras ship with a slow, middle-of-the-road zoom that people outgrow within months, and the Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary takes direct aim at that weak spot. The lens on your camera on day one decides how much you enjoy the thing you just spent a lot of money on, and a better starting zoom can push back the moment you feel you need more glass.

[Read More]

I attended Sigma’s launch event for the new Sigma FP2, a small full frame camera that bridges high-quality photography and professional filmmaking. The event, held at the Balloon Museum in NYC’s South Street Seaport area, featured a panel discussion with three creators who praised the latest entry in Sigma’s full frame camera line, along with a chance for the press to use the new camera to photograph throughout the museum.

[Read More]

The new Insta360 Mic launching today is offering creators a more affordable way to access high-quality wireless audio, with one particularly interesting change: instead of relying on built-in storage, recordings are saved to a microSD card supplied by the user. 

[Read More]

Leica partnering with Formula 1 is a first, and unexpected. Why is Leica chasing F1, and what’s the actual benefit of the carbon fiber being used?

The world of motorsport is all about weight reduction to create the fastest possible cars. Carbon fiber is the material of choice, so it’s not surprising to see it being used on this rather sporty-looking special edition Q3 43. My first thought was, like F1 cars, is this special edition Q3 43 built lighter than the regular version?

[Read More]

The shafts of light you call god beams are lying to you about their shape. They look like a fan bursting out of a hole in the clouds, splaying wider as they fall toward the ground, but the beams are very nearly parallel. You are watching the same trick that makes railroad tracks pinch together at the horizon, just pointed at the sky.

[Read More]

As someone who relies heavily on a geared head for precise hospitality work, the increasing demand for speed and video applications has left me considering how to integrate a hybrid ball head system into my professional workflow. Specifically, I was looking for a unit that acts as a traditional fluid head, yet retains the multi-axis freedom of a ball head for dynamic still photography—all without lugging around two different support systems.

[Read More]

Most advice on personal projects follows the same order: settle on a concept, write a rationale, set some rules, and only then pick up the camera. That sequence keeps a body of work coherent, though it can also screen out the images you keep returning to before you have any idea why they pull at you.

[Read More]

Crafting beautiful portraits with a simple camera and lighting setup is possible, and limiting our gear choices can lead to even more creative results. 

In my latest YouTube video, I demonstrate how I use natural light, strobe, and continuous light to create portraits. Instead of focusing on a ton of gear, I use simple setups, starting with just a window, and then show how I can use one Westcott FJ100 M hot shoe flash and a Joel Grimes Beauty Dish, and later one Westcott L120-B continuous light with the same modifier, to create varied results.

[Read More]