April 2018

April 30

May Flowers With Deals. It's common for the camera companies to put gear on sale this time of year. With camera shipments lagging for the first quarter of this year, I expect to see this become a bit more aggressive than usual (see bottom of article). Article on dslrbodies.com

April 23

Added new 85mm f/1.8 autofocus Meike lens to the lens database

A Snappier Bridge. Updated We've been through many updates of SnapBridge at this point, and fundamentally, little has improved other than some basic reliability of the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connections being made. Even then, I still see drops from time to time, and often at exactly the wrong moment. Plus batteries are being sucked down big time while I'm shooting. Article on dslrbodies.com

The Purge. I accumulate. I purge. I think many of us serious shooters have been through this. We get enamored by new gear and somehow justify buying into it. Article on dslrbodies.com

What Prompts an Upgrade? We have a long, long history now with interchangeable lens cameras (ILC). That also means that we have a lot of historical data we can plow through to form hypotheses. But before we get to that, let’s look at what the Internet says you upgrade for. Article on dslrbodies.com

The War Over Nothing. It’s been interesting to watch the Internet Intensity Engine fire up with the Blackmagic Design 4K Pocket Cinema Camera (4KPCC). Starting the day the 4KPCC was announced, threads all over the Internet began exploding with “Panasonic’s done” messages. Article on sansmirror.com

Added new Laowa lenses to the lens database

Cleaned up sansmirror.com menus so they're not so deep, which should help mobile users who have to use the hamburger icon menu system to navigate.

April 16

Added SkybeamNisi lenses to mirrorless lens database

Added Leica 16-35mm f/3.5-4.5 lens to database

Added Blackmagic Design 4K Pocket Cinema Camera and Z Cam E-2 to mirrorless camera database

Updated the mirrorless system guides (CanonFujifilmNikonm4/3Sony) and other articles

Sony 12-24mm f/4 Lens Review. The Sony 12-24mm f/4G is the latest in Sony's wide angle zooms, and a little bit of a surprise since they already had both a 16-35mm f/2.8 and 16-35mm f/4. Article on sansmirror.com

Fujifilm X-A5 Mini Review. I call this a mini-review because, amazingly, not a lot has changed from the X-A1 or X-A3. I suggest you read my X-A1 review as a starting point. Article on sansmirror.com

April 13

Fujifilm 250mm f/4 OIS for GF50s data page

April 12

A Casual Walk Through the NAB Show. Unlike two years ago, where I had a fixed agenda going into the show and some very specific interviews I wanted to do, this year I took a much more casual approach. I scheduled booth interviews with a few companies you might recognize—Fujifilm, Nikon, Sigma, and Sony—but for the most part I decided to spend my two days at the convention center mostly just wandering and seeing what caught my interest. Article on dslrbodies.com 

Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art Lens Review. The Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG Art is one of the lenses I get asked most about. There's a general perception that the Nikkor primes (older f/1.4 and newer f/1.8) aren't all they can be—not that I agree with that—and then there's Sigma's pricing compared to Nikon's. Article on dslrbodies.com

Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Art Lens Review. The Sigma Art fast prime set is getting filled in very nicely, now extending from 14mm to 135mm. The 135mm is an f/1.8 optic, not f/1.4 like some of the Art primes, but that probably saved us all from having to work out at the gym more. Article on dslrbodies.comApril 5

Two 15mm Manual Focus Choices. I get this question a lot: are the Laowa (left) and Irix (right) wide angle lenses any good? Rather than doing an in-depth review, I'm going to do a quick run down of some brief experience with them. Both lenses come in a range of mounts (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax). Article on dslrbodies.com

The Mirrorless Prisoners' Dilemma. Game play has all kinds of interesting applications to real life. It's one reason why I love to play games, especially those that involve strategy over just straight out skill: it makes me think about and test strategies. One reader reminded me (thank you) after my Attachment Rate article that Canon and Nikon are in a strange form of prisoners' dilemma. Article on sansmirror.com

April 4

Sigma 20mm f/1.4 Art Lens Review. 20mm is still seriously wide, though not quite as much as the 14mm I also reviewed. The 20mm Art covers the full 24x36mm frame (FX for Nikon users) and corner to corner diagonally, that works out to about 94°, or about 10° less than the 14mm. Article on dslrbodies.com

Adobe Now Accused of Moving Cheese. Lightroom Classic CC 7.3 comes with a lot of changes, yet not so many. Article on dslrbodies.com

April 3

Sigma 14mm f/1.8 Art Lens Review. The Sigma 14mm f/1.8 HSM Art is one of the recent prime lenses that show Sigma pushing into new arenas. We now have fast Art primes from 14mm to 135mm, and as you might have noticed, those are all getting lots of attention from the review sites and serious photographers. Article on dslrbodies.com

April 2

Yesterday's Fool Page. April Fools' day is for playing practical jokes and attempting to spread hoaxes on the unsuspecting. Those work best when there's an element of believability in them. Apparently I succeeded. Wildly so. Dozens of you wrote to me about my "switch" to Sony, my teaching assistant was asked if he was also going to switch, and multiple forum posts on other sites popped up announcing my switch. Article on dslrbodies.com

The Upgrade Situation. In doing some basic end-of-quarter bookkeeping, I noticed something in my data, which triggered me to run a quick, deeper analysis: virtually all of the D850 Guide purchasers I'm seeing have purchased a D800 or D810 Guide from me in the past. Article on dslrbodies.com

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