You may have heard that a 300mm lens on micro four thirds gives the same reach as a 600mm lens on full-frame. This is of course false in most cases and is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how cameras work. However, to understand this, you have to understand what “reach” is. Actually, the topic is a bit complex. To understand this phenomenon, we should first understand that we don’t get any additional reach by cropping. Cropping makes a subject in the total frame look bigger, but won’t give you anything additional that wasn’t there before. In short, cropping does not increase your rea ..read more

Unlike most wildlife photographers these days, I do not use AI noise reduction. For example, I took this image recently of a Rufous-collared Sparrow at ISO 2800: Yes, there was some noise in this photo but I removed it manually with traditional noise-reduction software. There is no doubt that DxO PureRaw 3 or some similar tool would have made the job faster. For images above ISO 10,000, it’s also possible that AI noise reduction software would do the job better, too. Yet, I don’t use AI noise reduction software. Why? There are two reasons. 1. I don’t want to support AI The biggest reasons for ..read more

The Tamron 55BB 500mm f/8 mirror lens is an unusual optic. Perhaps the best website for its history is on adaptall-2.com, but to be brief, it was released in 1983 before I was born. The 55BB is a mirror or catadiotropic lens, which means it has an actual mirror inside to allow the lens to be made much smaller than a typical 500mm lens. It’s also quite cheap at a couple hundred dollars, which makes it much more affordable than a serious 500mm lens. Unfortunately, this also means that this lens has serious compromises. Aside from its doughnut bokeh that bothers some people, it’s just not t ..read more

Tokina (a lens brand by Kenko) recently sent me their new 400mm f/8 SZX mirror lens to test. It’s an all-manual fixed-aperture mirror lens, and I was interested in testing this lens because I already have the Tamron 500mm f/8 BB lens that I reviewed a few months ago. I’ve shot for a few months with the Tokina 400mm now and here are my conclusions. I already produced a YouTube review of this lens: However, I’d like to also give a slighty more in-depth written review of this lens. I suggest watching the YouTube video above since you can see some video footage taken with the lens, as well as a f ..read more

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH25 is an old camera, released in 2011. Before I was serious about photography, I got one not really knowing much about cameras. As I still have it, I thought I’d post a fun retro review of this camera. Handling and Functionality This camera is small and is easy to fit in your pocket. It is flat and has no viewfinder, so you have to compose with the rear screen. Its focus modes are limited and not easy to control either. Moreover, the only manual control it has is using automatic or manual ISO. That means you can influence the shutter speed by fixing the ISO anywhere ..read more

I am very suspicious of cheap zooms. Some like the Nikon AF-P 70-300 are unusually good. Others like many 18-55 kit lenses are usually lacking. In today’s review, I’ll talk about one such zoom: the Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6. It’s not a stellar lens but it’s so cheap and light that it’s hardly a problem to have one in my camera bag. But is it worth it, or is it a dud? A Kit Lens? The 40-150mm is essentially a “kit lens”. Of course some kit lenses are great and not cheap at all, but this sure isn’t one of them. And such kit lenses don’t have a great reputation. For example, 18-55mm kit lenses are ..read more

Macro photography is one of my favourite genres of photography, and to satisfy my macro shooting I bought the Venus Laowa 50mm f/2.8X Macro lens for micro four thirds (MFT)! I will give a detailed review this lens and how it performs for macro and other types of photography. Before starting this review, I’d like to say that although I’ve posted quite a few shots in this post, there are a few more in my sample shots video that you might like to check out: Back to the review! Usually, I shoot birds. Nonetheless, when the going gets tough and the birds get going, I have to find alternative subje ..read more

Do you want sharp photos? I bet you do. You probably want sharp photos almost every time, unless you are going after a specific effect. Of course, I always found the term “sharp photo” a little strange. But everyone knows what it means: a photo with a lot of detail resolved. Here is one photo that is decently sharp: Southern Lapwing I actually took this photo on one of the least sharp lenses I’ve ever used: The Tamron 500mm f/8 55BB mirror lens, which I already reviewed: This lens is way less sharp than my Nikon 500mm f/5.6 PF lens. However, I can still get sharp photos when I get up really c ..read more

Unlike most wildlife photographers these days, I do not use AI noise reduction. For example, I took this image recently of a Rufous-collared Sparrow at ISO 2800: Rufous-collared Sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis) Yes, there was some noise in this photo but I removed it manually with traditional noise-reduction software. There is no doubt that DxO PureRaw 3 or some similar tool would have made the job faster. For images above ISO 10,000, it’s also possible that AI noise reduction software would do the job better, too. Yet, I don’t use AI noise reduction software. Why? There are two reasons. 1. I do ..read more

People talk about backups left and right, and I think by now most people know the basic backup strategy: at minimum, you should have three copies of your data, with one of them being off-site. A typical setup would be to have two hard drives at home with all your photos, and a third hard drive somewhere else. Or, the third hard drive could be cloud storage, which is useful for traveling photographers or for those who don’t have a good second place to put their hard drive. However, there is one important piece of advice that I would give to everyone: delete as much as you can. Most photos are s ..read more