PhotographyBanzai.com

Thanks to the motivation and transportation from a local friend, I was able to attend the c2e2 convention on that Saturday for 2023. Day trips are pretty viable and at least for that convention it’s the only way I’ve experienced it (2011 and 2018 articles are on this website) Here’s the Facebook image gallery. I’ve been trying to think of options to host cosplay photos on other sites besides Facebook. I would be nice if there were backups online so if FB has issues my cosplay photo work would still be available. A while back I cleared my Zenfolio connection on Facebook and it ended up deleting a bunch of photosets. So at the very least I need to re-process and upload those (EDIT: These photos magically showed back up at one point which is good! Saves a lot of time and effort, but I'm still on only the one platform). With the passing of Kevin Lillard  I have definitely been thinking about making sure my cosplay photo work is as accessible as possible. The problem is time and indirec...

I found this little camera bag from Case Logic at a local store on discount so it seemed like it would be worth making an overview video on.  The bag! I could see it being a decent little pack for small digicams and actions cameras. Especially if you are using a larger backpack without padding. You can use this as an added layer of protection. It seems like this pack was designed in the era of old compact digicams. They are not nearly as popular these days but I can see various types of other gear that would fit.   It works well with small digicams like this old Canon PowerShot Digital ELPH S200. I’d say it’s a good option for most action cameras. With the GoPro 9 and max lens mod attached it was difficult to zip up the compartment, but it works well when that isn’t attached. The secondary compartment can fit one or two average sized camera batteries and a few memory cards. This GoPro combination barely fits.  You can take the max lens off and it will fit better. Both the mod with its ...

I attended one of the CosMeetUp Chicago cosplay photography events! This specific event was back in 2022 but I just recently was able to make a video about it. This was my first one since they started in 2019. Their goal is to have safe and friendly events where people in the cosplay scene can share their skills for the sake of creating cool work. A few pictures from the event. Update 9/29/2023: Eddie was removed and/or left the group due to various misconduct allegations. Apparently two additional organizers “Phoebe” and “Troy” left. I don’t know specifics and haven’t been able to fully decipher the various Instagram posts and stories. I would simply be cautious regarding any future events run by this group. Anyways, the entire situation is ironic given the group’s purpose was meant to be a safe alternative to Anime Midwest which is run by an individual with his own set of allegations. My photos Gallery from the event. For this event I used the Nikon Z5 with the Z 50mm f/1.8s lens. It...

I did photography with the Canon PowerShot ELPH 180, Canon EOS M50 plus 15-45mm kit lens, and a Moto G Stylus 5G smartphone at my local Japanese garden to see what differences there are in a real world situation. Does the camera really matter that much if you are posting pictures to a social media website or similar? As with pretty much anything like this, it depends. Let’s talk about it! What's the difference? The video (full transcript at the bottom of this article): This excursion was back in the summer of 2022. The garden I went to has a no tripod policy, so I was juggling the three cameras with every similarly framed photo. I ended up not getting a ton of similar photos to compare. In retrospect I should have tried to get more, but there were enough to show differences. Detail close up between the ELPH 180 (left) and the M50 with its 15-45mm kit lens is not that different here. If the full photo were displayed at a small output resolution it’s possible you couldn’t notice. Che...

I’m writing all of this down in case sources disappear and I want to reference M6ii HDMI-out information in the future.  Selecting clean HDMI from the settings. So this is not by any means a definitive source but rather a jumble of information I’m putting together in the moment. The “HDMI info disp” setting to select clean output mode. This camera's 4K isn't really that size internally, but better than 1080p at least. There is one webpage I know about that mentioned the Canon EOS M6 Mark II supports clean HDMI output in 10-bit 4:2:2. I don’t think the page exists any longer on Canon USA’s website because the old link no longer works after a redesign. However it does currently exist on the Internet Archive .   A screen capture from the  Internet Archive  webpage copy. Here’s the important quote from that webpage:  HDMI recording: Menu-selected user choices for HDMI output with info (images recorded to the SD card); Clean 4K output, or Clean Full HD output. With clean output, com...

Various links go to my affiliates, I earn from qualifying purchases! Nikon released a firmware update for the Z5 that specifically says improved and expanded eye autofocus functionality. That’s a solid upgrade! Let’s take a look… You can download the firmware update from the the Nikon USA website . Obviously if you are outside of the USA then check your country specific Nikon website for the update in case there are regional differences. Here’s my video testing out the new firmware compared to v1.20 and a Canon EOS M6 Mark II with two lenses that have a similar field of view. Though, not a lot of those Canon testing clips got into the video… Consider picking up a Nikon Z5 Digital Camera through my affiliate links: B&H Photo Video Amazon Adorama Best Buy ebay Used on KEH Here is the official list from Nikon’s website: Added support for the iOS version of NX MobileAir . Use NX MobileAir version 1.0.4 or later. Added support for MC-N10 remote grips . Added support for ML-L7 remote c...

Links in this post might go to my affiliates where I earn from qualifying purchases! I’ve had multiple comments on my videos recently asking me how to get photos from old cameras, or more recent cheaper cameras that don’t support connecting wirelessly to a smartphone.  There are various ways to do it, but here I’ll cover the few I tend to use. Here’s a link to the combo USB memory card reader on Best Buy I showed in the video. I haven’t personally tried it but it looks versatile. Make sure it has the port and memory card types you need before considering it. Search for memory card readers: B&H Photo Video Amazon Adorama Best Buy ebay Connecting a smartphone to a normal USB memory card reader with a USB-C to USB-A adapter. Probably cheaper than buying a dedicated reader. Here are the ways I tend to use: Use a computer between the camera and phone. This is the most common and foolproof way. Besides buying a dedicated memory card reader you can usually connect your camera directly to...

I was planning on making a simple comparison video between the Canon EOS R50 and the Canon EOS M50 Mark II. Right before I starting recording I received an e-mail that I gained access to Bing Chat , the new GPT AI natural language website and extensions to the Edge browser. This goal seemed like a good test of Bing Chat to see if it can work for this use case. I used Chat GPT to summarize the video transcript: Bing Chat isn’t capable enough to do this and it’s limited to 2000 characters per message. ChatGPT appears to have a limit around 4000 and it’s significantly better at using the text I provide it. Why that happens is impossible to say with what I know, but I’m guessing that it’s a mix of low processing budget, confusion from web results, and maybe a simpler model overall with not enough training on each subject.  Bing Chat called the Canon EOS M50 Mark II a DSLR camera which is incorrect. Opening Talk Canon is a well-known camera brand that produces high-quality cameras for both...