Gear

Cameras, lenses, bags, tripods, printers and everything else photographers need to make great photographs. And yes, even film.

Video: Hands-On With The Fotodiox Vizelex Rhinocam
This gadget promises huge resolution, medium format style images from a Sony NEX camera, but can it deliver?
Camera Test: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 Interchangeable-Lens Compact
Could Panasonic's new "small" camera be the best ILC yet?
New Gear: Phantom Flex4K Camera Brings 4k Video at 1000fps
You might be limited to a five-second burst, but at 1000fps that's still an huge amount of high-speed footage

From the Buying Guide

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Lens Test: Sigma 70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro AF

This full-frame, digitally optimized beauty is great for macro, low-light,
and portrait shooters -- digital or film.
- By Julia Silber on December 16, 2008
While this digitally optimized (DG), full-frame 70mm f/2.8 lens ($430, street) can be mounted on film or digital SLRs, it will probably find its widest application on DSLRs that have APS-sized sensors, where it converts out to (about) a 105mm. On such cameras, it offers not only excellent macro and low-light performance, but also a suitable focal length and depth of field for flattering portraits with creamy, defocused backgrounds.
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The Goods

Power for your pocket, armless heads for tripods, upgraded software for
novices and pros, and more.
- On December 16, 2008
D-Lite-ful
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Five Must-Have Storage Drives

Five hot devices for archiving, protecting, and sharing your photos.
- By Jack Howard on December 16, 2008
1. WESTERN DIGITAL PASSPORT PORTABLE DRIVE
At 3.5x5.7x0.8 inches, this drive puts up to 160GB in your shirt pocket, letting you carry massive amounts of digital photos around with you in a tiny amount of space. It needs no power brick because it draws from the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 cable to transfer up to 480 Mbit/sec. Windows-only WD Sync software encrypts your data. (60-160GB, $120-$200, street; www.wdc.com)
2. SEAGATE MIRRA PERSONAL SYNC AND SHARE PERSONAL SERVER
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Which Camera Should I Buy?

With dedicated hot-shoe, optical IS, RAW storage, and a powerful 12X
f/2.8-3.7 zoom, the 7.1MP Kodak EasyShare P712 is top choice at $430.
- On December 16, 2008
Q: I want to photograph sports and nature (especially landscapes and animals), and I want to spend under $450. Any compacts fit the bill?
A: A lot of great compact digital cameras cost $450 or less these days. But for sports and nature photography, you'll want a model that has a long zoom lens with at least an f/2.8 aperture at the wide end -- a must for existing-light photography and extended flash range. That narrows the pack down, and excludes most pocketable models.
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Nikon D40 Shipping in December

The D50's replacement loses weight, trims price down to measly $600 street
with kit lens.
- By Jack Howard on December 16, 2008
After rampant rumor-mongering, leaked specs showing up on random sites, and photo forum banter, we can finally tell you about the just-announced Nikon D40, a slim, 6.1-megapixel bargain at $600 street with Nikon's 18-55mm f/3/5-5.6II AF-S Zoom Nikkor DX lens.
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How to Tame High-Contrast Lighting

A pair of quick tips for taming high-contrast lighting when you shoot
out-of-doors.
- By Peter Kolonia on December 16, 2008
Whatever your outdoor subject, if you're making pictures under a cloudless daytime sky, you've got a problem: contrast. Highlights can be blazingly bright and shadows impenetrably dark. Even with your DSLR at its lowest contrast setting, preserving detail in both highlight and shadowed areas can be impossible.
The good news: If you're forced to shoot in bright sunlight, photographers have developed techniques that can dim down highlights and/or brighten shadows to ultimately shrink the dynamic range of a scene. Here are two such contrast-controlling techniques.
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Camera Test: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi (400D)

Canon's newest Rebel is a high-end camera in a bargain body.
- By Dan Richards on December 16, 2008
Just three years ago Canon started a revolution with the 6.3MP EOS Digital Rebel -- the first digital SLR to sell for less than $1,000 with lens. That revolution has been such a wild success that the third-generation Reb, the XTi, arrives with 10.1MP, loads of high-end features, and an even lower price -- and still finds itself in a battle with four other manufacturers for that same piece of turf.
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Hands on With the Pentax K10D

This 10.1MP DSLR is built for speed, endurance, and price ($899 street).
- By Dan Richards on December 16, 2008
In the boisterous parade of new 10-megapixel DSLRs, here comes the tough guy of the bunch, the Pentax K10D. This new model packs 10MP capture, CCD-based image stabilization, a self-cleaning sensor, and compatibility with an extensive lens system into what is probably the best-sealed DSLR body in the sub-$1,000 class. At $999 (estimated street) with the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Pentax DA lens, or $899 for the body only, it's a tough deal to beat, too.
We knew Pentax had a 10MP DSLR coming, but we didn't quite expect this level of construction and capability. Details:
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Kid Tested, Mother Approved

We outfitted kids ranging in age from three to five with the new Fisher-Price
Kid-Tough Digital Camera to see just how tough these starter cams really are.
- By Jack Howard on December 16, 2008
At the PopPhoto lab, we normally run new digital cameras through a series of tests to determine image quality, color accuracy, resolution, and lens performance. But there are exceptions.
We can tell just by "eyeballing" that the new Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera (street: $70.00) would not score very highly with our stringent testing procedures. But does it matter if the resolution is low, the fixed focus lens shows some distortion, and the color accuracy feels a bit off? In this case, we don't think so.
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Camera Review: Olympus SP-510UZ

Although not without its flaws, this 7.1MP EVF with 10x optical zoom is a
very likable camera.
- By Mark Lent on December 16, 2008
The Olympus SP-510UZ is a 7.1 Megapixel EVF (Electronic ViewFinder) camera that has some big-time features typically found in much more expensive DSLR's, but with a street price of only $342. The real surprises for an EVF at this price is that it features a RAW file format, has the ability to make manual exposures and uses ED glass in two elements -- all features which are common in much more costly DSLRs.
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