The Phoblographer

You’ve got a micro four thirds camera, and you want to move up to something better. Luckily, there are ways to move up in the system without having to completely switch to whole nother camera system. That saves you lots of money and time when it comes to selling and buying lenses. Like many of you reading this, I’m invested in the Micro four thirds camera system and so are many of my friends. We all started out with one camera and one lens and then moved on up depending on our own specific needs and wants.

This guide will assess the needs of those wanting to stay in a budget, shoot video, shoot stills, use the cameras as flair and for those that want to make the absolute best of the system.

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At Photo Plus 2011, we had hands on time with the Carl Zeiss 25mm f2 lens. During that time, we were very impressed with the lens’s performance despite having it for such a short period of time. When it arrived at my doorstep, I was very excited to try it. Indeed, it has been my first Zeiss review as Mike has typically been the site’s specialist on these lenses.

So can the Zeiss 25mm f2 live up to the legendary camera manufacturer’s name as well as stand up to some of Canon’s best glass?

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First off: Holy crap, Nikon Rumors found the D800 and the staff sound very confident about it! In all honesty though, we know nothing about this one.

Anyway though, for every person that doesn’t follow us on our channels though: the company will delay the camera (not really, but really.)

Facebook: Updated often every day featuring cool posts that we’ve done. We also ask the readers to participate in various discussions. Some of them get really deep.

Twitter: Our Twitter account is where we feature lots of cool tips.

Google +: This is where we interact with the larger photo community and some of the staff show off their photos.

Tumblr: THIS IS THE NEW ONE TO WATCH! Our Tumblr features posts from the site, street photography from around Tumblr and great deals and news.

Flickr: Our Flickr group features photos from the site’s community members.

The two newest books to my photography library have been two highly anticipated lighting books; Kevin Kubota’s Lighting Notebook, and Scott Kelby’s Light It Shoot It Retouch It. About a month ago I reviewed Kevin’s book and you guys seemed to respond to that positively. You can find that review here. I’ve finally gotten around to putting my thoughts on Scott’s book down in writing. If you don’t know who Scott Kelby is, you should look him up right now. His current accolades include president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, editor-in-chief of Photoshop User magazine, and founder of KelbyTraining.com. He is a true professional photographer and he’s willing to share all of his knowledge with everyone. He has been a major influence on me during my photographic career. His newest book, Light It Shoot It Retouch It, is the latest in a line of books he’s authored.

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The Lens Loop is a camera strap that I’ve been using for a little while now. When it was initially pitched to me, I thought it all a bit odd. I mean, really, a recycled seat belt holding your camera in place at your side? As time went on though, I came to appreciate the quirky but cool strap.

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Portra 160 35mm

Not long ago, Kodak got in touch with me and wanted me to try out their latest Portra films: 160 and 400 in 35mm. At Photo Plus, I was also given a roll of Ektar to play with. Admittedly, I’ve mainly been a user of Portra 400, Tri-X 400, Fuji Pro 400, and Ilford XP2. However, I decided to give it a shot and reawaken the excitement that comes with not knowing what your image looks like until it comes back from the lab.

A giant thank you goes out to Nathan Blaney for letting me use his Canon 1N for this post. Blaney is a wonderful photographer, and you should take the time to look through his site.

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