Scameras Exposed: Never Buy Cheap No-Name Cameras Online

Scam­eras: The Decep­tive World of Fake Dig­i­tal Cam­eras A few days ago, a stu­dent showed up to my Toron­to group pho­tog­ra­phy work­shop with a cam­era I couldn’t rec­og­nize. That’s rare. I’ve taught peo­ple using every­thing from pro­fes­sion­al DSLRs and mir­ror­less bod­ies to fixed-lens cam­eras like the Fuji­film X100V and Sony RX100 series. As long as …

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Fujifilm XF 16–55mm F2.8 R LM WR Review: Still Worth It?

The Fuji­film XF 16–55mm F2.8 R LM WR aspires to com­pete with full-frame 24–70mm ƒ/2.8 stan­dard zooms by offer­ing a fast, no-com­pro­mise option for Fuji­film shoot­ers. On the sur­face, its full-frame equiv­a­lent focal length of 24–84mm might seem like an advantage—offering more reach than a con­ven­tion­al 24–70mm. How­ev­er, that promise is mis­lead­ing. As I point­ed …

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Fujifilm XF 35mm F1.4 R — Review and Sample Photos

Intro­duc­tion The Fuji­non XF 35mm F1.4 R was one of three orig­i­nal fixed focal length lens­es that launched Fujifilm’s X Sys­tem in Jan­u­ary 2012, along­side their first mir­ror­less inter­change­able lens cam­era, the X‑PRO1. It’s a fast nor­mal prime lens—“fast” due to its large max­i­mum aper­ture of ƒ/1.4, which allows for faster shut­ter speeds in low …

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Fujifilm XF 50–140mm F2.8 R LM OIS WR Review: Built to Last

Intro­duc­tion The Fuji­film XF 50–140mm F2.8 R LM OIS WR is the tele­pho­to piece of the tra­di­tion­al “holy trin­i­ty” of zoom lens­es, whose place on full-frame sys­tems is occu­pied by the 70–200mm f/2.8 zoom. True to Fujifilm’s design phi­los­o­phy, many of its lens­es have focal lengths that make sense when trans­lat­ed into full-frame equiv­a­lents, and …

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Fujifilm XF 10–24mm F4 R OIS WR Review: Capable, but Not for Me

Intro­duc­tion The Fuji­film XF 10–24mm F4 R OIS WR is a minor Octo­ber 2020 refresh of the orig­i­nal lens, which Fuji­film released back in Decem­ber 2013 as their first ultra-wide zoom for the X‑series sys­tem. This updat­ed ver­sion address­es a cou­ple of com­plaints about the original—adding weath­er seal­ing, and tweak­ing the aper­ture ring and exter­nal …

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A Beginner Guide to Lens Filters

Pho­to­graph­ic lens fil­ters play an essen­tial role in enhanc­ing your images and pro­tect­ing your lens from abra­sions. This guide intro­duces the basics and explores the three most com­mon types: polar­iz­ers, neu­tral den­si­ty fil­ters, and UV/protection fil­ters. Learn which fil­ters can make a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence in your pho­tog­ra­phy and which ones might not jus­ti­fy the cost. …

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Common Image Artifacts in Photography and How to Fix Them

Image arti­facts are one of those things that every pho­tog­ra­ph­er deals with at some point, whether you’re a begin­ner just get­ting the hang of your cam­era or some­one with a bit more expe­ri­ence. These issues can crop up for all sorts of rea­sons: some­times it’s user error, some­times it’s just the way your spe­cif­ic lens …

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Grid Flare in Digital Cameras

Have you ever noticed a faint pat­tern of colour­ful cir­cles or dots—most promi­nent­ly red, but also green and blue—when tak­ing a pho­to with a bright light source in the frame? That’s grid flare, although it’s also called flare grid pat­tern and red dot flare. It’s a unique quirk of dig­i­tal cam­era sen­sors that can be dis­tract­ing …

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What is Bokeh in Photography?

Intro­duc­tion: What is (and Isn’t) Bokeh? If you’ve spent any time around pho­tog­ra­phy forums, work­shops, or social media, you’ve prob­a­bly heard some­one say, “This lens has so much bokeh,” or “Why can’t I get enough bokeh in my shots?” As some­one who teach­es photography—and some­one who enjoys nuance—I can’t help but cringe a lit­tle. The …

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Fujifilm Fujinon XF23mmF1.4 R LM WR on the X-H2S camera.

Fujinon XF23mmF1.4 R LM WR Review: My Favourite Fujifilm Prime Lens

Intro­duc­tion The 35mm (full-frame equiv­a­lent) field of view is one I dis­cov­ered and fell in love with a cou­ple of years into my fledg­ling pho­tog­ra­phy hob­by. My first dig­i­tal inter­change­able lens cam­era was the Canon EOS 30D, an APS‑C mod­el. About 18 months after get­ting it, I took the plunge and ordered the Canon EF …

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