#1279. “For god’s sake stop dithering…”
I doubt I’d have justified the cash, if fate hadn’t played a major role; the pay out for a burglary at my home near Cape Town in September last year has been sitting in my bank for a while, giving me...
View Article#1295. Leica SL2 Repair Review – Part 1
This article is going to be a bit of a departure from my usual efforts at showing a travel location in a different light, usually infra-red. But first, we need to have a little background. For the past...
View Article#1304. Leica SL2 and Nikon 50mm AIS Review
Welcome back to my review of the post repair Leica SL2 and a select lens. In this section we will be looking at the Nikon 50mm f1.4 AIS lens mounted on an inexpensive Fotasy “NK-L L” adapter, because...
View Article#1310. Little John, the Laowa 58mm f:2,8 Ultra-macro
There are multiple stories as to why Laowa are called Laowa. The recently-come-to-prominence Chinese lens-making company itself is called Anhui ChangGeng Optics Co. Ltd., and it trades under Venus...
View Article#1312. Leica SL2 and Zeiss 35mm F1.4 ZM Distagon Review
Welcome back to my post-repair review of the Leica SL2 and a selection of third-party lens. In this section we will be looking at the Zeiss 35mm f1.4 ZM Distagon lens, which many readers here at Dear...
View Article#1318. Pushing Boundaries Parr Punchy And TTArtisans
Disclaimer : Right up front for those concerned there is no expectation of privacy in public in the Far South. Street photography is legal and not a crime. I was recently gifted a TTArtisans 23mm F/1.4...
View Article#1337. United Colours of X1D
Since my recent love letter to Hasselblad consisted mainly of b&w photographs, a few readers rightly contested my praise of the X1D’s colour science 😉 This post is here to explain what it is I like...
View Article#1349. Diversity in GAS
This weekend, I was fortunate enough to try 4 cameras Here’s another brief post from me as I return from a quick visit to the UK to see friends and family. My X1D stayed at home to keep luggage...
View Article#1419. Should I Touit?
Lens choices can be bewildering because we are now faced with so many options. As well as the camera brands, lenses come from the long established third party makers such as Sigma and Tamron, and a...
View Article#1424. Light is right! [(c) C. Chapman]. The Sony 40mm f:2.5 G
No, this is not a post on the importance of light (meaning good light) in photography. It is about the difference weight makes to image-making. In my case, at least, and I doubt that I am the only one,...
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#805. What’s in my bag? Part 2
So. I’m going out to wander the streets. I want to disappear, so as to be able to get the shots I want. Unlike many street photographers, I don’t want my subject(s) to see me. I think capturing a...
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#809. GAS Strikes Again – Z 7 Vs D850
My last bout of GAS was in May 2018, see #739. An Acute Attack of GAS – Sony A7R111/Nikon D850. Whilst extremely happy with the D850, the release of the Zs did get my mind ticking over. It wasn’t...
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#826. The Hasselblad X1D. Take 2.
Reviewing kit isn’t the same as owning it. During a review, you look for signs of grandeur, evidence of flaws, factual information to communicate in order to inform potential purchases. Living with a...
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#835. When Audrey met Mjölner (Zeiss Distagon 1.4/35 ZM on Hasselblad X1D)
They are named Novoflex, but should really call themselves the match makers. When cameras and lenses have Romeo and Juliet upbringings and their parents refuse to see them wed, Novoflex swoop in and...
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#837. Caesar takes on Thor (Zeiss C-Sonnar 1.5/50 ZM on Hasselblad X1D)
It might surprise some readers that the Viking empire once streched further than the Roman empire. The Vikings being less interested in administration than in pillaging, their presence on conquered...
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#840. Hasselblad XCD 3,5/30mm review
This lens is responsible for 70% of my photographs with the Hasselblad X1D, so it seems like a good starting point for a review of that camera’s now rapidly growing lens system. It isn’t an easy...
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#843. What’s in my Bag? (Adam)
Late to the party (but always nice to be invited) it’s high time I shared with you the contents of my bag! The obvious choice for me was the Billingham Hadley small. To me this bag has everything...
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#846. The Voigtländer 40mm f:1.2 for Sony: the un-Otus.
Voigtländer 40mm f:1.2 for FE mount (c) Cosina Voigtlander The Voigländer 40mm f:1.2 for Sony mirrorless (FE mount) is designed and made by the Japanese firm Cosina, who bought the rights to the...
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#847. Hasselblad XCD 3.5/45mm review. The best all rounder ?
Here is a second Hasselblad X1D lens reviews. My intention isn’t to bore anyone but to provide some sort of repository for the information I wish I’d had access to before deciding to jump in....
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#850. 3 days in Paris with the Hasselblad XCD 4/21 (minimalist review).
This is the widest lens in the Hasselblad X1D’s current native range. And it’s keeper. Unfortunately. My finance plan for acquiring an “augmented” 5-lens X1D field kit was to sell 2 or 3...
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#855. Hasselblad XCD 3.5/120 review – dealing in gentle absolutes!
Let me spoil you the end right away. This lens is ridiculously good, even by Hasselblad standards. While I will go into details further down this page, just know I couldn’t find fault with this...
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#864. Hasselblad XCD 3.2/90 review. Better than the OTUS 85?
A weird shift has happened during my evaluation of the 5 Hasselblad XCD lenses at my disposal. Having been mesmerized by Hans Strand’s first sample photos with the XCD 30, that lens was the one I...
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#882. The Un-Camera
Dear Susan’s contributors have varied photographic interests, taken with varied equipment, but often with a unifying aim to avoid the obvious, and often taking an independent path to interesting...
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#884. Zeiss Otus 100. A spanner in the X1D works?
Something wasn’t right. Why would Zeiss release a 100/1.4 lens when their existing 85/1.4 was already hailed by most experts as possibly the best lens ever made? The first minutes of investigations...
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#893. Family wedding – M43 mission
My wife, son, and I recently enjoyed a family wedding in Ogunquit, Maine. We live on the coast just a couple of hours north, so it was a pleasant little drive for us to join the extended clan for a...
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#904. Minuscule pleasures: the Laowa 100mm f:2.8 macro
Minuscule pleasures. I owe this notion to Philippe Delerm’s book: “The first gulp of beer and other minuscule pleasures”. It encourages me not to overlook what is pleasureable, however small, banal...
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#908. Sony 18-135mm. Cheap. Far more than cheerful.
There is a lot of snobbery and prejudice in photography, and internet amplification syndrome ensures that strongly held beliefs are perpetuated, even when they may not be easy to substantiate with...
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#922. My experience with Zeiss ZM and Leica M lenses on Sony A7rii
(Pascal) Please welcome new contributor Paul Shadarevian, who shares his love for the combination of modern cameras with more traditional lenses. Something I can defintely relate to Thank you, Paul....
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#935. The Hasselblad X1D does football
It’s the most peculiar activity, football. Having recently been given the opportunity of an evening inside the shiny stadium that hosts Olympique de Marseille, probably France’s most notorious team,...
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#940. Nikon Z7 – 12 months on
The Nikon Z7 for a first effort, is pretty good, IMHO. Sure it may not have Sony like eye detection focus and it has the cardinal sin of just a single memory card. Not having these 2 features has not...
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#942. Photographing the Newport Classic Yacht Regatta
I took some photos again at this year’s Classic Yacht Regatta in Newport, RI, USA. It had been a few years. Amazing how different the sky and ocean can be year to year. And it’s always a treat to be...
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#969. 25 Biogon, or 35 Distagon? Oh. How about the X100V?
Is this a review? Nope. Statement of the obvious? Nope. I’m deep in a personal preference fight with myself. I have to stop and take stock; Zeiss’ 25mm Biogon, or the 35 Distagon. Which is more likely...
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#970. Meet Up – Jonathan & Marko (i.e. Zeiss Milvus 100 Makro vs Laowa 100...
Two friends (Dallas and Philippe), two similar 100mm macro lense, one location. Do they produce similar photographs, and how do the lenses compare on looks? Dallas (Milvus 100 Makro) begins Philippe...
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#1002. Thwarted progress: the rise and fall of L16
In October 2015, Light, an aptly named California-based company, announced the development of a new camera concept, which claimed to change the way we practice photography. The Light L16 was designed...
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#1003. Time for a change at last? (Lockdown – day forty something).
The tethering cable for my X-H1 arrived a couple of days ago. It’s a beast; bright orange, 5m long and weighs about as much as a photocopier. I’ll need to anchor it properly to the tripod, or it’ll...
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#1004. Plastic blasphemy: 30 year-old Nikkor 50/1.8 on Hasselblad X1D!
Plastic, the 30+ year old lens certainly is. Fantastic remains to be seen Can a cheap and old design be of any use on a (relatively) modern mirrorless camera that’s not even the right format for it ?...
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#1011. Thanks for the memories (digital asset management)
I hold to my belief that photography is primarily a documentary activity insofar as, unlike painting, photography records reality or some small slice thereof. This characteristic links all the great...
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#1012. Hasseblad X1D and Zeiss Distagon 25/2 ZF.2: More fun with legacy lenses
My intuition and some available tests, online, hinted at the fact that the longer the focal length, the easier it would be for a lens to cover a wider sensor than what it had been designed for. In the...
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#1015. Leica Elmarit-R 90/2.8 on Hasselblad X1D: too gentle for its own good?
This thing about testing old lenses on modern bodies is a very contrarian pursuit. Having been wowed by two lenses that shouldn’t have performed well, I’m now let down by an old favourite of mine....
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#1017. Leica Summicron-R 35/2 on Hasselblad X1D: The last of the vintage...
Can the vintage wide-angle miracle repeat itself? Afther the surprising Otus 21 act of the Zeiss Distagon 25/2 ZF.2, can this Leica Summicron-R 35/2 morph into a wonderful 28/1.4 for the X1D? No, it...
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#1037. Meet Pixii, the un-Leica-ly new camera
David Barth will probably hate this title. That matters, because David Barth is the founding father of Pixii, a new entry to the ailing field of camera manufacturers. David believes that a totally new...
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#1041. Important Camera Review : Pixii dust for the industry?
Can an expensive 11Mpx rangefinder camera with no rear screen be the best news in a long time for the photography industry? I wouldn’t rule it out completely … During my 2 weeks tenure, the camera...
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#1075. The vanity lens. Or is it? The truly excellent Laowa 15mm f:2.0,...
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity in my photography, because so much of it is about me. My recent post on the “short game” underscores how this sort photography speaks to me because it lets me put...
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#1098. Laowaaaaaah fun!!
For those of you who read my very first article on this blog, “some like it wide”, you may remember that it dealt with my special attraction to wide angle lenses. While I continue to shoot with my...
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#1126. Reframing Photography with Artificial Intelligence
As OS updates sneak into our smartphones, uninvited and undetected, some new features make their appearances and surprise users. AI, it seems, is getting a firmer grip on photographic practises....
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#1143. Death to the Pixii? (Aug 2021 review)
It’s a bit early in the day to celebrate a best-of retrospective from Pixii – in the same way the alternative rock band Pixies did after a decade of work together with their Death to the Pixies album....
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#1218. Pixii Monochrome
With this latest release, Pixii asks what makes a great monochrome camera. Here’s their answer. As promised in my last article about the Pixii camera, I am keeping you updated with news from the Team...
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#1227. My thoughts on the Hasselblad X2D
Is it a dream come true, or just another boring camera in a string of boring quantitatively-designed cameras in a suuuuper boring quantitative-driven market? Shot on a Hasselblad X1D & XCD 90 lens...
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#1232. I tested Vero
So you don’t have to – Maybe you should, though! My Vero feed In a recent roundup of news, I linked to a Peter McKinnon video detailing 10 reasons to try out the social platform Vero. It seems to...
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#1267. Canon G650. Preview of a (good) small photo printer
The Canon G650 proves quality isn’t tightly linked to printer size. B&W wall art As regular victims of my self-pitying rants on digital-printing complexity know, I’ve been looking at ways of...
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