Photo Accessory News

Some trends just won’t go away: Billboard magazine notes that U.S. vinyl album sales are up 53 percent, generating $416 million in sales. Stereophile, our sister publication, reviews new analog audio equipment and you can purchase new Nikon F6 or Leica M-A film cameras from Shutterbug advertisers. Ferrania is back making film and the Japan Camera Hunter website is making their own film, a discontinued Agfa emulsion they’re calling JCH StreetPan 400. Amazon’s top-selling photo item is Fuji’s Instax Mini Instant Film. There’s even a new twin-lens instant camera, Mint’s InstantFlex TL70, and yes, I gotta get me one of those.

Sports photography shares much in common with capturing images of wildlife: You’ve got an active scene captured at a distance requiring specialized equipment and knowledge of the subject’s activities while anticipating what they are going to do next…or not. Sure, you’ll need fast, long focal length lenses but you will also need camera supports and other gear that along with specialized knowledge separates the virtuosos, like Regis Lefebure (regislefebure.com), from the wannabes. Here’s a look at some of our favorite tools of the sports trade.

Last week we explored seven great photo gifts under $100. If you missed that installment, you can find it here. This week we take it down a notch in price, but truth be told, this collection of goodies is just as cool—if not cooler—than the last one.

Is that your shutter snapping or your teeth chattering? If cold weather is bad for your body, it’s even worse for your camera body. Moisture of any kind is a camera killer. And freezing temperatures contribute to everything from internal condensation to diminished battery performance. Herewith, then, are my seven favorite cold weather tips and accessories. 

As the name implies, the Fotodiox LED Studio-in-a-Box is a self-contained tabletop studio that features interior LED lighting that has a daylight color balance of 5600 Kelvin. The CRI, or Color Rendering Index, is 85 (on a scale 0 to 100).

If you’re like many photographers who travel with a laptop and often wish you had a larger monitor for working on your images, look no further: SPUD is an innovative 24-inch projection screen that weighs less than two pounds  and collapses down to the size of a book in under 10 seconds.

Photographers are an inventive lot. Most have of us have improvised one thing or another in pursuit of our obsession, be it a soft-focus diffuser made from a discarded nylon stocking, studio lamp handcrafted from a Home Depot shop light, or a gadget bag recycled from an army surplus gas mask pack. But here’s a bonafide useful tool that Greg Montano, owner of Dexter’s Camera in Ventura, California, created more-or-less out of necessity, and has been using professionally since.