I am 55 years old, which makes me part of Generation X. I've always felt that we were the luckiest generation because we were born and raised and educated and went out into the world of work at the start of this modern post-boomer silicon era when absolutely everything changed. We were at school and college when the Internet was born and when the world-wide web was invented. We witnessed the arrival of the home computer and the games console. We were young when first music and then photography went from analog to digital and we were young adults when smartphones were invented. We were there w ..read more

So let me kick things off by stating one thing right from the outset. Believe it or not, the current version of the Arsenal 2 Pro firmware and app combination has marginally improved. If you want the elevator pitch it's this - the basic functionality is slightly better, but the headline features of the device, the things that people are buying this device for in the first place, yea, they’re still about as useful as tastebuds in your bung hole. The Basics In terms of basic functionality, the last time I gave the Arsenal 2 a serious test it crashed constantly, shat itself mid-operation and fai ..read more

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Left unchecked, upgradeitis can turn into full blown GAS … that's gear acquisition syndrome incidentally, not the old raspberry tarts. And while upgradeitis affects all geeks, drone users seem to be particularly susceptible. No sooner have DJI announced a new model, than the Facebook groups, subreddits and forums are full of people looking to offload their current drone. There seems to be this reality distortion field centred on Shenzen and which activates whenever DJI release a new drone. This distortion field sweeps around the world, faster than a new far-right conspiracy theory, and instan ..read more

If you're a painter it's almost impossible not to develop your own style. The nature of painting, the media, the subjects, the process, the paints, the brushes and the skills (or otherwise) of the artist in question mean you instantly get your own style whether you want it or not. It might not necessarily be a good style, but it's still yours. In fact the only artists who don't have their own style are world-class forgers, and the kind of high-brow art sleuths who work for auction houses will tell you that even they have 'tells' that give them away. But photography offers far more definite ou ..read more

I missed the original Arsenal kickstarter, but it was by all accounts a big hit and so its success made a follow-up somewhat inevitable. When it was announced, the development team scored funding to the tune of $4.2m from over 22,000 eager backers with $230 in disposable funds lying around. With that level of interest it seems evident that there is a strong market for this sort of device. Toys for the Boys I know my way around a camera and you're probably wondering why anyone who is more than moderately proficient at operating a modern camera would buy a device like this. And my super-quick t ..read more

In this video I look into the dark art of post-capture photography. In this era of RAW files and post-processing - how do you know when a photograph is ready? How do you know when to stop fannying about with the Lightroom sliders? Thanks to Meek for asking this very question and inspiring this video. Let me know in the comments section below how you know when a photo is done ..read more