The Meike 35mm f1.7 is a compact manual focus APS-C lens designed for photographers who want affordable image quality in as small of a package as possible. Although the f1.7 aperture isn’t as fast as some of the other lenses available, the smaller aperture allows the lens to produce a more corrected image than some of the faster lenses without the loss of character.

Once a year, at the temple Agato in Fukuoka Japan, visitors gather together to begin the celebration of the coming new year in an annual fire festival.

A tradition with a series of rituals rooted in Shintoism and celebrated by both the Buddhists and Shintos of Japan.

To photograph this event, I used the Canon R with the 24-105mm f4L and processed the photos with Lightroom. I’ll also share you some tips and tricks and the mental process I use to produce these photos.

The Fujinon 23mm f2 is a small light weight lens with a weather sealed construction and an incredibly fast, but silent internal focusing system. The f2 aperture with 9 rounded aperture blades produces very smooth bokeh when wide open and the 10 element design with 2 aspherical elements corrects for most issues with chromatic aberrations, distortion and vignetting while still maintaining a very natural and unique rendering.

It’s suited for photographers who need a fast autofocusing compact lens that still capable of producing outstanding image quality.

Finally, I’m just about caught up in all the tedious stuff one must do to make a living off a blog and I can finally get back into doing the things I like to do, testing out crazy lenses and have fun shooting the way I like to shoot. 

I have something like 8 or 9 lenses just lying around waiting to get reviewed. Some of them not so exciting, some of them are really exciting, like this lens, the Meike 35mm f1.7.

I finally just started shooting with it and wow. Just wow.

The Canon 24-105mm f4 is true master of versatility with an incredibly useful 24mm focal length on the wide end, and some really nice reach with 105mm on the telephoto end.

Walking around, shooting landscape photography, travel photography, HDR or events, you can use this lens in just about any situation. Build quality is really nice, color contrast, sharpness is very good and there are no serious flaws other than some minor chromatic aberrations in the corners and some distortion. It’s the perfect high end kit lens.

I’ve read and watched most reviews of the Canon EOS R, and man, what an echo chamber. The online review game has gotten really lazy.

If you didn’t know any better, you would think the Canon EOS R is a complete failure and a disaster, especially when you compare it to a similarly priced Sony A7III.

I’ve been shooting with the EOS R for a few weeks now dissecting its performance and capabilities so that I can share with you all the pros and cons of this camera and how it compares to my beloved Sony A7rIII.

In the meantime, here is what just about every camera review got wrong!

The Panasonic LX100 II is a pocketable compact 17 megapixel micro four thirds camera with a 24-75mm f1.7 to f2.8 variable zoom lens. It shoots 4k video at 100Mbps and features a toggle aspect ratio switch to change the area used on the sensor. 

The LX100 II sensor is a 21 megapixel micro four thirds sensor, but the camera only utilizes a maximum crop of 17 megapixels at any time to allow for different aspect ratios for different situations.

When I first started testing memory cards in my GoPro Hero 7 Black, the first thing I noticed was the camera got very hot and record times were getting cut short. Usually about 20-30 minutes. I would get no prompt, no message, nothing, recordings would just stop.

It seemed when just sitting my cool room, the max record time I could get with a GoPro Hero 7 Black at 4k60 was about 30 minutes.

There has been a lot of discussion around the Fujifilm X-T2 vs the Fujifilm X-T3 regarding low light performance and dynamic range.

For my tests, I waited for Adobe Lightroom to support the X-T3 since that is what most people use. I did not want to use some funky software to put out bogus results for the sake of being first to the scene.

So here we are, tests from Adobe Camera Raw.

If you are on the fence about which lens to buy, the Fujifilm 23mm f1.4 or the Fujifilm 23mm f2, this comparison will guide you through the differences between the two. I also share my personal take on which lens I prefer and for what since I find them both useful, but for different situations.

When I first started using Aurora back in 2017 it really felt like the beginning of something awesome. Like the baby alien that just burst out of Kanes chest in the first Alien movie, it took off running doing all these mysterious things behind the scenes.

The little creature continued to grow while occasionally popping out for an update here and there. It was exciting and still powerful, but we only got to see hints of what this beast would become. Finally, with the launch of Aurora HDR 2019, it’s true form has been revealed as the perfect landscape devouring monster.

Without a doubt the Kipon IBELUX 40mm f0.85 is one of the most interesting lenses for APS-C shooters to date. This is currently the brightest lens on the market as well as the fastest. For APS-C shooters that miss the depth of field and low light performance of full frame cameras, you’ll find all that here. A 35mm equivalency would give you something like a 60mm at f1.2.