KENDALL CAMERA CLUB BLOG FEED

You can shoot at f/1.4 and get almost no background blur, or shoot at f/4 and get plenty of it. That single fact upends how most people spend money on lenses, and it explains why some expensive glass never delivers the creamy backgrounds you paid for.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Sony sells a 50mm f/1.2 but has held off on an 85mm f/1.2 for its full frame mirrorless system, and now a third party has stepped in with autofocus and a price that undercuts Sony's own 85mm f/1.4 G Master II. The Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG DN Art lands as the first autofocus 85mm f/1.2 for Sony E and the first 85mm f/1.2 ever for L-mount.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Japan observes a Camera Day on November 30, and the date comes from 1977, when Konishiroku Photo Industry put the Konica C35 AF on sale. It was the first mass-produced camera that focused itself, and the part doing the focusing was built by a Minneapolis company whose main businesses were thermostats, industrial controls, and defense electronics. Autofocus turns 50 in November 2027, and the anniversary belongs to a brand most photographers have quietly filed under "used bin."   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Everything creative takes longer than you plan, your photos will get worse before they get better, and you will miss shots that were never yours to keep. These are the uncomfortable facts most people skip when they hand out photography advice, and accepting them early saves years of frustration.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

I recently wrote about why we should stop accepting standard "constructive criticism" on our photos. Instead, solicit feedback that actually helps you grow as a photographer. But most of us don’t know how to ask for anything better. We never learned how to ask. So how do you get more meaningful input on your work? Ask for a critique.    [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Adam Matthews)

A small card of 24 painted squares turns 50 this year. It is still made, still sold, and still sitting in the front pocket of a lot of camera bags, because it answers a question that cameras have never learned to answer on their own: what color is this, actually?  Happy birthday to the ColorChecker. Here is what it does, why the design has barely moved since 1976, and where the thing has ended up in five decades of use. [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

A single medium format film shot cost about 470 times what the same scene cost on a digital camera. That kind of math should end the film-versus-digital debate outright, and yet the photos taken on film still mean more to the person who shot them. This is the tension every hybrid shooter runs into once digital quality stops being the question.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Autumn brings shorter crowds, softer light, and sunrise times you can actually reach without setting three alarms. The hard part is knowing where to point the camera in the first place, especially when time is short.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Put two portrait shots side by side, one taken with an $1,800 Sony lens and one taken with a $99 lens, and most people can't call which is which at a glance. That gap between price and image quality is worth understanding before you spend money on your next portrait lens.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

It’s almost here! Photoshop World 2026, sponsored by Adobe, kicks off online Monday with our pre-conference sessions, and I hope you’ll be joining us. We’ve got an incredible group of instructors this year teaching Photoshop, Lightroom, photography, AI, creativity, business, and a whole lot more, live, across three tracks, for four days. I’ll be teaching, too, including a pre-conference session on Monday, and I’m really looking forward to getting everybody together again. And there’s plenty happening outside the classes. We’ve got our Pre-Conference Meet-Up, Keynote presented by Adobe, PSW Film Fest, An Evening with Richard Bernabe, Late Night with Larry Becker & Guests, the Guru Awards, and all the other things that make Photoshop World feel like Photoshop World. That community...

OM Digital Solutions has announced the OM SYSTEM PEN, a new Micro Four Thirds interchangeable-lens camera built around a 20.4-megapixel Live MOS sensor, TruePic IX processor, 5-axis in-body image stabilization, and a compact rangefinder-style body. It is the first PEN-series camera released under the OM System brand, as well as the first model in the series to combine an electronic viewfinder with a dustproof and IPX1-rated splashproof design.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Packing a single lens for a long trip means giving up options you might miss, and the Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 makes that gamble easier to justify. The range covers wide landscapes, tight architecture, and portraits without a bag full of glass.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

The earliest surviving camera photograph of any continent is a grainy rooftop view that Nicéphore Niépce recorded in the Burgundy countryside in 1826 or 1827, and burning it onto a sheet of pewter took at least many hours of daylight and possibly several days. Every other landmass had to wait. As the daguerreotype spread out of Paris after 1839, cameras reached North America within weeks, then Africa, Asia, and South America, then Australia, and finally, roughly sixty years later, the ice of Antarctica.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Photoshop's beta build now includes a Refine Edge feature that cleans up the messy fringing left behind when you cut a subject out of one background and drop them onto another. Every click costs 20 generative credits, so the value depends on whether the result beats what you can do by hand.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Today, I wanted to take a break from discussing the cameras that capture our images and look at one of the tools used to make those images better. Let’s have a look at the Peak Design Travel Tripod.  When it comes to camera-related products, it seems as though Peak Design’s company ethos is right there in the title. The products they produce seem engineered to solve common problems in a unique and elegant way. [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Christopher Malcolm)

The Fujifilm X-M5 and X-E5 look like siblings, but the price gap between them runs about $1,000 and the experience of shooting each one splits along lines you might not expect. Deciding between an $800 body and one that often sells closer to $1,800 forces a question every buyer eventually faces: how much are premium build and resolution actually worth to you?   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Shooting film is one thing. Developing and scanning it yourself, hundreds of miles from home, inside a van with blackout blinds and a couple of red lights, is a different level of commitment.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Forced to sell every camera and lens and shoot a single focal length forever, plenty of street shooters would reach for 35mm because it handles almost anything. There's a strong case that the wider 28mm produces more interesting pictures, and the reasoning has less to do with sharpness and more to do with truth.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

SIRUI has officially announced the launch of the Saturn V2 Full Frame Anamorphic Lens Series, representing a significant update to its popular Saturn anamorphic system. Aimed at modern filmmakers and hybrid content creators, the new generation introduces a unique 90-degree rotating optical mechanism, allowing users to seamlessly transition between traditional horizontal cinematography and vertical shooting formats without needing to swap lenses or rebuild their camera rigs.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Zhen Siang Yang)

Sigma just released an 85mm f/1.2 DG Art for L-mount and Sony E-mount, and it lands at £1,299 in the UK or $1,599 in the US. That price sits well under Canon's and Nikon's mirrorless 85mm f/1.2 options, and the Sigma is smaller and lighter than both.   [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)