Birding with a medium format camera? Well, yes. Fujifilm wants you to believe that it’s possible. Even I was a bit excited yet skeptical. But the Fujifilm GF 500mm f5.6 is indeed a real lens. The company, which has never had the best autofocus system, believes that medium format photographers and others will really enjoy this lens and all that it can do. As I was testing this lens, several questions were in my mind. Can I really make better pictures with this thing than I can with several 35mm full-frame lenses? Will it be able to keep up with small, erratically-moving birds in the foliage? And is it something that I’d want to carry around for a while? Let me tell you: I haven’t been this surprised at a lens since the Fujifilm 50mm f1. And more importantly, the hype is justified this time around.
Look deep in Canon’s history, and you’ll see only a few iconic cameras that aren’t SLR-style camera bodies. Those two cameras are also possibly some of the most beloved from their portfolio. The mere mention of the Canon Canonnet QL17 can get any rangefinder camera lover’s heart beating. And if they want a second helping, they’ll probably speak to the Canon 7 series rangefinder and the beautiful lenses it could use. Truly, Canon’s rangefinder-style cameras are stunning, but considering that all Canon really seems to make are SLR-style cameras, we’re not sure that we can expect a rangefinder-style camera.
You asked for it, and we’ve done it. We came out with our own presets. We’re calling these the photojournalism Lightroom presets because, well, they work great for just that genre. However, they’re also mostly designed around working with humans. So they’re fantastic for studio portrait photographers too. This article gives you visual examples of all 20 presets in our Photojournalism Presets Pack, as applied to various portraits we’ve taken over the years. And if you want, you can purchase them right here at our store.
If Lensbaby made a light, and you gave it solid build quality, you’d get the Hobolite Iris. This thing is overall pretty simple to work with. There’s an on/off button that also lets you switch between brightness and color temperature. That’s it. Oh, and it feels like a 110 film camera that was built really well. While I’m usually not one to reach for an LED first, I think that the Iris can fulfill a really niche role very well. What’s that role? Small product photography for social media.
“I think a hodgepodge is a good way to describe my brain…,” states photographer AdeY in an interview with the Phoblographer. When you look at AdeY’s photographs, you see so many different things. I see a ton of nude bodies out in public. But I also see some internet memes such as planking. Additionally, there’s a sprinkle of conceptual and surrealist art in there. All of this simply makes sense as AdeY is a former dancer — and the randomness of the flow is inherently translated into these images.
We call them the photojournalism presets, and so we’ve based them off a bunch of different looks we’ve seen over the years. Lacking inspiration? We’ve got your back! Over the years, the Phoblographer’s staffers have tested various cameras and lenses as well as film emulsions. So we decided to make Lightroom presets that look like …
Whenever the Phoblographer reports on something, we try to find what makes it unique. That’s especially the case for lenses, as there are so many of them on the market more or less being clones of one another. So when I asked what makes teh new Thypoch Simera 35mm f1.4 and 28mmm f1.4 lenses so unique, I was seriously shocked. “They feature the same optics as the Leica-M version,” said Joey Tsang to the Phoblographer in an email. He continued to state that they’re also much cheaper than the Leica M versions. And today, they’re announcing the lenses for other camera mounts.
Would you believe me if I told you that slavery was present throughout more of American History than when it wasn’t? Slavery effectively ended in 1865, but the deep, multi-generational scars and trauma persist. It’s barely been 160 years, and both therapy and wellness have only become more socially accepted since the pandemic of 2020. Lots of people would turn to their families for help, but for slaves, that was mostly erased. This won’t be apparent to most people when viewing Nona Faustine: White Shoes at the Brooklyn Museum. And despite this exhibit being the closest thing to a photographer’s dream in a big institution like this, it’s a series you must ruminate on.
It’s not that I’m against constant lighting or LED lighting, but we can all agree that several of them lack magic. When you’re shooting a photo and the pop of the flash goes off, something happens to the hero of your photo. Suddenly, you’re making something that the human eye can’t see. Much of playing with LED lights involved looking and not seeing — and if you’re an artistic photographer, you’ll understand where I’m getting to with that. Recently, the Hobolite Avant made me realize that a good LED or constant light can help you do both.
The photos from this camera look like early digital! The Camp Snap Photo Camera was designed for parents to buy for their kids. When we reviewed it, we noted that it has a bit of a vintage look. Now, we’re giving one away to a lucky reader. When the Phoblographer’s Membership program was created, we …