PhotographyBanzai.com

The SL2 signified a large change in my Youtube channel. Features like dual pixel auto-focus, the fully articulating vari-angle screen, and the solid phone application have made a huge difference to my effectiveness and efficiency when producing online videos at 1080p. This camera is low cost and simply works for my intended uses with very few quirks. Now that it’s older, it’s an even better deal!  Canon Rebel SL2. In this video I go over ergonomics and general thoughts on the camera. I used to struggle a lot with video production tasks on old cameras like pre-focusing for clips where I needed to talk to the camera. Other filming styles like vlogging were nearly impossible for me to manage without the solid auto-focus system this camera has in video and liveview photo mode. It’s all possible to do with manual focus, but you need to built up specific skills that I didn’t have at the time. Sample Photos and videos: In this video I show sample photos and video clips at 4k quality. Here are...

Wide angle lens decent for vlogging. Here is my Youtube video review: It’s an ultra-wide lens for APS-C sensor cameras. Under $300 new and even less used. There is a 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 that is also exclusively for APS-C cameras, but it’s around twice the price. The 35mm film equivalent focal length of this lens is 16-29mm. Equipment in this video and accessory suggestions for this lens (affiliated): https://kit.co/photographybanzai/canon-ef-s-10-18mm-f4-5-5-6-is-stm-review-gear My photos you can look at on Flickr (100% jpegs unedited): https://www.flickr.com/photos/photographybanzai/albums/72157695007325992 Physical features: * 67mm filter thread, which a standard size and nice to have. I use ND filters with this lens when I’m doing videos, so having a wide angle lens with a filter thread is extremely useful. * It has switches for AF/MF and OIS On/Off. * Plastic mount, but the benefit is low cost. You can find it even cheaper used, which is what I did. * 7 aperture blades (demonstrate if...

This is a free event photographers from the Midwest have been hosting at Anime Central since 2015. Vontography is the person that has been handling all of the details and administration of the event. A special thanks to him for all of his work managing this event.  Video still frames from the event. We just had the 2018 event and it went well! Here is a link to my behind-the-scenes photos of the event. Here is the BTS video I put together: Here is a quick description of the event from his event page : The Acen open shoot is returning for its fourth year! For those of you who haven’t attended any of the previous shoots, here’s the lowdown. We photographers would love to be able to work with as many cosplayers as we can at a con, but obviously, there is only so much we can do given the limited time we have. Likewise, for cosplayers there are a plethora of limitations. The aim of the open shoot is to try and fix some of these problems, all while making new connections in the process....

I had hands-on time with the Nikon D500.  It's currently Nikon's most advanced APS-C sized sensor DSLR. For the crop sensor, you gain a huge amount of features such as an extremely robust build, an extremely advanced phase detection auto-focus system, and  Nikon's high-end control scheme. There are a few drawbacks such as an additional crop in 4k video, but from a still photographer standpoint, it is hard to go wrong with this DSLR. If you do sports or nature work and have Nikon glass, this is your best lowest cost option for a new camera.  The Nikon D500 camera. I've got two versions of this video. is a better edit made later or you can watch the original .  The tilting back screen. Features of note: The first thing I noticed was how robust it feels compared to my D750. It’s certainly another level above. The layout is in the style of Nikon’s most advanced line of cameras. Memory cards are XQD and SD, I understand the XQD support, but I’m glad they have a simple SD ca...

I had some quality hands-on time with the Sony DSC-HX80 digital camera. With improvements in smart phone cameras, manufacturers have been trying to differentiate between them. In this case, Sony has a tiny camera that has an EVF, huge zoom range, and a flip-up screen. The camera has a small 1/2.3″ sensor but they try to make up for that in features. Front of the  Sony DSC-HX80. Get the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX80 Digital Camera through my links: eBay:  http://ebay.us/P0MKum KEH: https://shrsl.com/25jbt Amazon: https://amzn.to/2L5iMpb As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases!  Features of note: This is a compact 1/2.3 inch sensor camera with a 24-720mm equivalent lens with an 18.2mp lens. It’s solid in the hands, very compact for what it includes. A flip-up screen for selfie photos and videos. The battery is a NP-BX1 X-Type rated at 1240 mAh. Not too bad for a small camera like this with an estimated ~390 photos per charge. It has optical stabilization. WIFI and NF...

Nikon D3400 (Red): An entry level APS-C camera for everyday photography at an entry level price. Features of note: A lower cost traditional DSLR with an APS-C sensor. The red color is pretty neat. It has a nice reflective sheen. It should be consistent and reliable. This line of camera has been offered a long time. I’ve used them in the past without issues. Ergonomics are solid considering the level of this camera. They have spent a long time revising this series of camera. Battery life is solid. Features I’d like to see improved on: One control dial. You have to rely on the camera’s back screen a lot more than more expensive cameras in Nikon’s lineup. This is a standard omission in the D3000 series. No aperture control while recording video. No auto-focus motor for older D-type lenses. No high speed sync. Pentamirror viewfinder instead of Pentaprism. No MIC port. A downgrade over the D3300. Wireless is only bluetooth, so it will be slow and they limit uploads to 2mp in size. Final tho...

Sony A9: The professional level full-frame mirrorless camera. Features of note: 24mp full-frame sensor (35.6×23.8mm) Fast sensor readout with a silent electronic shutter (lower chance of a rolling shutter effect compared to other cameras of this time period). Compact yet competes with anything else currently out there. 4k video at 30fps and 1080p at 120fps. Two SD card slots for backup or other purposes. A higher capacity battery than previous models (NP-FZ100). WIFI, Bluetooth, and NFC connectivity. 1/8000th maximum standard shutter speed (1/32000 electronic). 5-axis in-camera sensor stabilizer. Face detect and Eye-AF for portrait photography. 20fps continuous drive Locking mode and function dials. Solid feeling camera with a large number of tactile controls. Includes professional ports such as ethernet and flash sync as well as hdmi, mic, and headphone jack. Features I’d like to see improved on: It’s only USB 2.0. Memory cards are a little difficult to get out of the camera due to sp...

I was able to attend c2e2 (Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo) on 4/7/2018 thanks to my friend Kale. My two other friends Nick and Roger also went. It’s around a two hour drive, so carpooling is a great help as I’m not a big fan of driving around downtown Chicago alone.  Me at c2e2 (thanks to a friend for taking the photo) That gave me the opportunity to do some convention and cosplay photography. In this case I went with as little equipment as possible so that I wasn’t bogged down. Thanks to Roger also taking photos and being enthusiastic about asking cosplayers for pictures, a lot of the effort I have to usually put in was handled! A few highlight images from the convention: The X100F does have a built-in flash, but I decided against using it. The enjoyment of taking things easy turns into time spent in post processing in an attempt to minimize the issues.  Light sources on the ceiling had a mixture of what looked like ~3000k and ~5000k color temperatures, resulting in a bright yel...

Hey, it’s been a while. I’ve been working intensely on my Photography Banzai Youtube channel since around August 2017. I’m trying to see if I can really make something special out of it. Partly because I haven’t had much contracted software development work lately (freeing up time), but also because it is one of those projects I’m passionate about improving on to see where it might go in the future. It’s one of my hopes it will expand in reach significantly. Since I started the channel in January 2011, it has had over 1.5 million views, though the public number is around 1.4 million due to me cleaning up the channel of past content I felt wasn’t that great, unrelated to the theme, or generated traffic in a negative way. The one thing about my effort on Youtube is that the work I’ve put in has consistently given back. I can’t say that about every passion project I’ve worked on. It isn’t a whole lot in the grand scheme of ...

I’ve done previous articles. A decent amount of the cards here will be the same. The goal was to round up as many cards as I had on-hand to do benchmark testing on. I also did a bracketed camera test with the Nikon D600. Here is the companion video on Youtube . I used a Transcend USB 3.0 card reader for this test. Here are the steps I took to setup the benchmark: Make a bootable USB drive with Ubuntu Desktop on it. In my case I used version 17.04. Download an ISO . Download the USB bootable drive tool . Run Rufus and have it create the bootable drive with the downloaded ISO image . At that point you can reboot your computer with the USB drive attached and get into Ubuntu. Once loaded, you have to find the Disk Utility. It wasn’t quite as easy for me as in past articles. Partly because I haven’t used Ubuntu for a long time and they also hid the utility for whatever reason. I was able to search the available programs and bring it up. They also hide the benchmark functionality inside a “b...