As some of you have noticed, beginning of 2023 I set up a Discord server for the Phillipreeve.net community and I am happy to report that there are many active members and it allowed me to be closer to the community as well.
Also some memes have been exchanged/created and I thought for those that aren’t members (yet) I will share my favorites here.
We always tell you about new gear here, but at the end of the day lenses are just tools needed to take nice pictures. Martin and I went through all the pictures we took in 2023 to choose our 10 favorites. You can find those pictures here with a bit of additional information, for which there is not always a place in the gear reviews.
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
A lot has happened in 2023 and a few of those things I want to highlight and talk about here.
…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