Category Archives: Meta

Analogue, camera, Guides, lenses, Meta

Used Lens and Camera Shopping Guide for Japan

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Introduction

Sony A7rII | Zeiss Loxia 21mm 2.8 | f/4.0

If you are looking for used lenses or cameras, Japan can be a real dream destination. Having already been there two times myself I know from first hand experience that it isn’t easy to locate some of the more interesting stores though. My Finnish expat friend Juha Kannisto – who is living in Tokyo – has been helping out photographers from all over the world for years already when it comes to this topic.

I thought it would be useful to collect all this knowledge and turn it into an easy-to-access article, so here we are.

Continue reading Used Lens and Camera Shopping Guide for Japan →

Meta, Opinion

If you like something, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is good

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Introduction

ms-optics ms-optical ism sonnetar f/1.0 f/0.95 fast noctilux angenieux leica m10 24mp 42mp review sharpness bokeh vignetting
Leica M10 | MS-Optics 50mm 1.0 ISM | f/1.4

…and only because something is good you don’t have to like it either.

I am an active member of several photography boards (Fred Miranda, DSLR-Forum, Leica Forum) and in addition to that plenty of Facebook groups and in a moment of weakness I might even have a look at the comment section of a Sonyalpharumors post. And of course I am also taking care of our own Discord community since early 2023.

What got me thinking and ultimately motivated me to write this piece: how useful is it to ask random people what lens you should buy?

The more time I spend on those boards (and I am trying to spend less time there), the more I think asking these questions there is pretty much pointless. Why is that?

Continue reading If you like something, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is good →

Meta, Opinion, Postprocessing, Technical, The creative process

Photoshop Ai: What can it do for you?

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Introduction

By now I am pretty sure all of you have already heard of ChatGPT, Midjourney or any of the other artifical intelligences you can now talk to or make use of. Where it got interesting for me, was in early 2023, when Adobe released a Photoshop Beta version with AI features and staggering capabilities. Over the past months I have been using it (for professional work and private stuff) so I wanted to show you some examples where it was useful to me and also how it works.
One thing is for sure, this will vastly disrupt image editing workflows.

Continue reading Photoshop Ai: What can it do for you? →

Meta, Review

Reviewing Lenses isn’t really worth it

11 Comments

Excuse me for the usage of such a clickbait title. As you may have noticed, lately some big photography related websites went out of business. Others are so loaded with advertising these days, it is barely possible to spot the actual content anymore. Some also opted for membership programs like Patreon. We on the other hand always financed this blog exclusively through unobtrusive affiliate links. This is only possible because it is a passion project by people with actual jobs that just happen to love photography.

Don’t worry: we have no intention to add annoying adverts or introducing a membership/Patreon/Onlyfans system, as I have always been an advocate of free internet and freely accessible information. I also don’t want to push junk software with high margins that I would never want to use myself.

That being said there are many articles here that generate zero income: for example the Analogue Adventures and everything from the Technical Knowledge category, as these are not really about a product that could be bought by you. Same is also true for the reviews of simply bad lenses. Why would you buy them through affiliate links if I told you they suck?

Affiliate links also don’t work for everyone and every item. If you are not from Canada or the US, B&H is surely less attractive. Many people from Germany don’t like ordering directly from Asia because of import duties and some items may also not be available through our affiliate partners at all.

If you find yourself in one of these categories – or if you simply want to support us without using affiliate links – you can do that now by using this Paypal donate button under our articles:

via Paypal

The money you donate will go directly to the author of that article.

PS: In my case any money would be used to track down and review further exotic lenses that you cannot find really useful information on elsewhere (like e.g. the Zeiss Hologon 16mm 8.0 or the Olympus OM 180mm 2.0).