Reviews
A special “flashback” post sharing articles I wrote for the now defunct DEDPXL. My third article with DEDPXL, “The Lomography New Petzval Review”, reviews a very interesting lens that mimics the look of vintage analog brass petzval lenses.
Read after the cut:
Read MorePeople have been asking me how photographing with my Hasselblad 500C/M & Phase One P30 digital medium format back has been going.
The answer to that is a bit complicated: It turned into a Mamiya 645DF with DM33 digital back.
Wait, wut?
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I’m a sucker for using a “beauty dish” and I just wanted to share how awesome a more recent piece of gear I purchased is and how it solved a small problem I had when it came to transporting and location gigs. The Westcott Rapid Box Collapsible Beauty Dish. It’s a mouthful to say, but I’m so in love with it.
Except the price. I hate the price. Read more after the cut:
Read MoreWhat you are looking at is my Hasselblad 500C/M. I’ve shared my awesome story about how I came to own this camera in the past, but if you look on the back of the camera, usually where there is a 120 film holder, it might look a little different.
That is because instead of a film holder, it now has a PhaseOne medium format digital back. It’s an old back, and it’s clunky, and I’ve been told it’s “horribly out of date” by photographers, but I am so happy with it. I’m happy that I can now shoot digitally with my Hasselblad.
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I picked up a used X100 last year and I really fell in love with it, despite it's finicky menu. I actually did a minor upgrade and picked up an X100S (I say the "S" stands for "Sid Edition") while hooking a friend up with the X100, and then later helped another friend pick up another used X100. I seem to be in the market of helping friends get awesome used cameras :)
I recently picked up a Fuji Instax printer to play around with. My X100S has a built-in wifi feature that will work with Eyefi cards, so I've been shooting with the Eyefi card, which uploads those images to my cell phone, and then I can print those images on the Instax. It isn't as easy as just pulling an instant print with my 4x5 or Hasselblad cameras (or even one of the Polaroid Land cameras I have lying around) but it's still pretty neat.
The X100S is lovely. Just like the X100 before it, I recently shot a majority of some assignment photography for The Hippo using just the X100S. I freaking love this camera.
The last quarter of 2016 is going to see some major changes as far as my studio is concerned, and with that in mind I wanted to find some hard-shell gear cases so I could house and organize the gear I use the most. I’ve been using cases by Seahorse for the last ten months, and I figured I’d talk a little about them and how I’m using them.
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I've developed a little bit of an internet friendship with Holdfast owner Matt. He's been awesome every time I've emailed him and the dude called me by name as I approached him last year at the PhotoPlus expo. Knowing who I am as I walk up to you? Well, that goes a long way with me.
He came across my review I did of the MoneyMaker leather strap a while back, and asked if he could put that review up on his website. Absolutely.
I love his gear. I wish I could afford some of the other stuff that he makes because it's gorgeous. Hopefully some day I can pick up a few other things.
If you don't know of his gear, take a spin over to his website. It's good stuff.
Y'all know I love this lens. Here is my official review of the lens up at DEDPXL. Enjoy!
I've had the Petzval lens from Lomography for a little over a month now, and I've been limited to testing it because of all the freaking snow we got this season and the dang-blasted cold. BUT I did get enough test shooting done that when Lomography emailed me asking if I'd be willing to do a write up with my initial thoughts about the lens, I had a dozen or so test shots to give them along with my thoughts. You can read that nice long article HERE.
To note - I had wrote a lot about the very loose focus that my test lens had, and they omitted those parts because they've informed me that they have corrected the focus issue with the lenses that have gone to retail. That's a good thing, as this test lens is a beeyotch to focus. It's very loose, and even the slightest movement will rack it out of focus.
I still have BIG plans for how to test this lens out more thoroughly and I will absolutely be integrating it into my client shootings as well as personal. Honestly, I'm really looking forward to shooting personally with this thing. Plus, it slows me down considerably because I've found the best way (for me) to use it is with a tripod and a viewing hood loupe, pretty much how I used to shoot large format 4x5 with my Toyo camera. It's a good feeling to slow down when shooting again.
Read Lomography's interview HERE
This little slice of heaven arrived last month - what might be the easiest, thorough and best way to clean your DSLR sensor; the Sensor Gel Stick from the lads over at Photography Life. This little sucker has a sticky gel pad on the end of it. You just tap-tap-tap this on your sensor to pick up the dust, and then clean the gel stick pad on some sticky paper that is included. As I understand it, this is just like how they clean cameras at camera service factories. Get it HERE.
