Recent announcements from Sigma have made a lot of portrait and landscape photographers very happy- the question is, can the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art and the Sigma 12-24mm f/4 DG HSM Art replace the current favorites from Canon and Nikon? The Sigma Art series prime lenses are steadily taking over the entire range of focal lengths. With the recent announcements, Art primes now cover from 20mm to 85mm and Sigma even announced a 500mm f/4 Sport lens....

The Portkeys LH5P is a really interesting monitor, to say the least. It boasts a great feature set and a bright panel. But the most attractive feature is definitely the camera control function. Portkeys has been getting notoriety for its camera control abilities, and this monitor brings it to an even more affordable market. Peaking at 1700 nits, this 5.5-inch monitor can do some pretty cool stuff. Even taking into consideration that Portkeys is a budget brand....

You’ve come a long way, baby Once upon a time, the biggest problem with camera phones was the camera itself. One of the world’s first camera phone, the J-SH04 was released in 2000. Boy did we come a long way, right? It could should tiny 0.11 megapixels images. It went up from there. The camera is a big deal in any phone nowadays, Apple has it’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign and bunch of other brands do the same, some even partnering up with Leica to give their phone a legs up above the competition....

Trexo Innovation has announced their new Trexo Slider, a motorised mini slider aimed at content creators who like to pack a small lightweight kit. Designed to handle everything from DSLR and mirrorless cameras to smartphones, it allows for shooting of both video and timelapse, with speeds ranging from a super slow 0.001mm/sec up to a rather nippy 30mm/sec. It’s also strong enough for vertical slides up to a rate of 25mm/sec....

Have you ever wondered what the largest lens in the world looks like? It belongs to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), and its diameter is 1.57 meters (5.1 feet). It will be paired with a massive three-ton camera to study the sky and take enormous 3.2-gigapixel images every 20 seconds. The LSST is currently under construction in Northern Chile and it will be placed atop of a mountain at an 8,800 feet high peak....

The lens of the world’s largest digital camera was introduced to the world around this time last year. Now the sensor has been completed as well, and Stanford researchers have taken the first 3,200-megapixel images in the lab. Yeah, you read that well – 3,200 megapixels, and these are the largest photos ever taken in a single shot. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory assembled the sensor from 189 individual 16-megapixel sensors....

You may be familiar with the work of fine art photographer Tim Tadder. His portraits show human figures that look simple but send a strong message. With his latest project, Black is a Color, Tim has created another beautiful and intriguing series of portraits. They look gorgeous, but they also send a message that there’s much more to every human than what we see on the surface. Tim enjoys photographing human figures that are almost mannequin-like....

If you have a good story in your mind, only a smartphone can be enough to turn the story into a movie. But if you’d like to spice up your smartphone videos a bit, Jordy Vandeput from Cinecom.net will show you how. In this video, he shares five cheap and simple DIY tricks for shooting with a smartphone. They will give your videos interesting transitions, effects, and even correct color balance, using only stuff you have at home....

Advertisements This is Reportage is a website that’s all about documentary wedding photography, founded by photographer Alan Law. The photos from this series show the moments we got used to seeing during the pandemic: masks, social distancing, elbow bumps, and other things that you’ll agree are atypical for weddings. While they are coronavirus-themed, they are a part of larger collections that you’ll find on the website. The Awards at This is Reportage regularly see over 12,000 submissions, Alan writes....

In their new short film series Masters, Frame.io asked the world’s master filmmakers: “Why do you do, what you do?” In the first episode of this inspiring series, award-winning director Mark Toia shares his experience that will motivate you if you ever feel you’re creating art in vain. Toia came a long way from a steelworker to an appreciated and paid artist. A teacher once told him that art doesn’t pay… But he couldn’t have been more wrong....

In the past, the thought of making your own lens would probably seem like a fairly impossible mission. For most of us, it still seems pretty out of reach. Not for determined photographer and weird lens master, Mathieu Stern, though, who created his own 3D printed lens. Making your own 135mm f/1.8 has to come with a pretty huge sense of accomplishment already. Upon first using it and seeing the results, though, you can’t really fail to be impressed....

Every once in a while, a timelapse comes along that just takes your breath away. You could take almost any frame from such films and it stands up on its own as a still photography. Alive, by German filmmaker Florian “Flo” Nick, is one such timelapse film. It was shot over 5,500km travelled in six weeks exploring the vast landscapes of Alberta and British Columbia. And it’s is absolutely beautiful....

Is there such a thing as Uncanny Valley for animals? Because seeing the modern spy cameras, I think there should be. PBS has created a robotic Japanese macaque to film the daily lives of its living counterparts. It can even dive, so it has managed to film the underwater grooming ritual of these adorable animals. PBS’ spy cameras are so impressively realistic that a baby macaque even tried to befriend one of them....

Digital picture frames aren’t exactly new technology. Put a bunch of images on an SD card, slot it in and they just cycle through them all to give you a constantly changing display. They’ve been around for years and there are millions of them out there. But this one, created by Cameron on Hackaday is pretty cool. It lets friends send him images across the Internet and it automatically updates with the images that have been sent....

If there’s one thing I know about skateboarders, it’s that they’ll go to great lengths to film themselves pulling off tricks. But finding a camera operator to follow you around all the time isn’t easy. At least, not for most people. For London based illustrator, designer and skateboarder, Rob Mathieson, the solution is simple. Strap a camera to his Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Ladies and gentleman, meet Fatman the Dog, camera op extraordinaire....

Drones have become widespread in photography and filmmaking, and their applications keep growing. Researchers at UC Berkeley’s High Performance Robotics Laboratory (HiPeRLab) have created a drone that shrinks mid-flight so it can squeeze through small spaces. The drone is, for now, only a prototype. Instead of rigid connections between its arms and the central body, there are sprung hinges. These hinges allow for the arms of the drone to fold down when low thrusts are produced by the propellers....

Yesterday we showed you South of Home Photography’s beautiful photographs of the New Zealand winter night sky. If you’re just starting out with astrophotography, it can be difficult to know where to begin. How should you plan? Is your gear up to the challenge? Do you need specialist equipment? What settings should you use? Today we discovered a guide that’s going to help you get started in learning how to shoot your own astrophotography images....

I have to say, this is probably one of the more extreme camera mods I’ve seen in recent times. Sure, there were some doozies back in the days of film when everything was mechanical. But now? With all the intricacies of digital chips and circuits? Not so much beyond “How to add a microphone jack” hacks. This, though, takes it to the extreme. One member of the Xitek forum decided he just really didn’t like his Sony A7’s electronic viewfinder....

It’s one of those debates that’s been going on since the dawn of digital photography. To use UV filters or not? In the film days, a UV filter was often a wise choice, depending on what film stock you were using. In the days of digital, it didn’t really offer the advantage it once did. But, many still choose to use them. The common reason is for “protection”. In the event that something bangs into it, or the lens is dropped “I’d rather replace a UV filter than a front element”....

Godox has been getting an unfair, I think, hard time lately about its batteries. With reports of them spontaneously catching on fire or just dying completely. But as I’ve said before, this isn’t something that’s unique to Godox. The fact of the matter is that lithium-ion battery technology can be dangerous when not respected. Lack of proper care can also cause them to become useless fairly quickly, too. In this video, photographer Wes Perry, who has a background in engineering and alternative energies, walks us through five simple tips to prevent our lithium-ion batteries from catching fire or exploding and to extend their life for as long as possible....