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I've been doing photography for two decades and the idea of purchasing an electronic dry cabinet never really crossed my mind until recently. I never actually thought I needed a device like this but climate change seems to have made our summer seasons more humid with more frequent episodes of torrential rainfall where the humidity levels can go up...

I wanted a good pair of binoculars for some time as an aid to the localization of birds and small mammals in my photography outings. I was looking for something very portable and light with high quality optics. I owned several pairs of binoculars through the years by Tasco, Skyline and Bushnell but they were either too big to be considered portable...

I read countless reviews before purchasing mine. Since I am by no means a portrait photographer in a purist sense (very little model photography), I pondered whether the lens would be of any extensive use to me given that its price tag is rather steep. I finally pulled the plug on a dealer demo when they offered me a significant rebate and a 90 day...

This is a quick comparison of the total weight that has to be carried when using these two recent 500mm lenses from Nikon. I did this just for fun but it could be useful to anybody considering these two lenses or any other lens in this focal length range with similar weights and maximum aperture values. As I mentioned in an earlier post, weight ha...

After using a ball or pan/tilt head for years and not being fully satisfied about the way it performed for moving subjects, I decided to take a closer look at a gimbal head. I was essentially looking for a head that was light (it only needed to balance the weight of a Nikon 500mm PF), solidly built and smooth in all directions. After many weeks of...

After fine tuning both lenses with LensAlign, I decided to compare the resulting images side by side just to see which lens was sharpest wide open. Several sample images were taken using both lenses after they were fine tuned and only the best image was kept for both. These samples represent the middle portion only (where the AF was pointing on the...

This is not a definitive review of the lens since I only got it a few weeks ago. These are my brief initial impressions. A full review should follow as I gain more experience with the lens. The lens is light. It is in fact incredibly light for a fixed lens with a long reach. It is easy to handhold for a few hours without too much strain. The lens...

My number one concern about using Nikon's best heavy primes and zooms has always been how much mobility I would lose while shooting in different conditions and terrains. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8 or 200-400mm f/4 that I have used extensively require a very good and heavy CF tripod and matching head to stabilize their bulk and weight which impacts mobil...

Or more specifically, how sharp is your lens wide open at the center of the frame under controlled conditions? A side benefit of using LensAlign (see other blog entry) is that it can help me quickly determine how sharp a lens is at its largest aperture where most lenses are at their weakest in contrast and sharpness. Since all variables are fixed...

So I bought the LensAlign focus calibration system (minus the focus tune software) a few years ago. The idea was to get something reliable and precise that would allow me to check for AF issues on some of my Nikon lenses. Since LensAlign is the only product that I know of that uses a precise alignment system, I decided to get that one. I checked ot...