Buyer's Guides

Street photography, capturing authentic, un-posed pictures of people being themselves, is a genre that dates back to the mid 19th century. It rapidly evolved with the introduction smaller cameras like the 35mm Leica I of 1925, and as faster films and high-speed lenses of superior quality became available.

Kittens become cats, pigeons target sports cars and hard drives fail. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst—buy a plug-in external hard drive for your precious images or for a loved one. They are so simple to use that even an adult can manage on the first try, and they are so affordable that you’ll kick yourself if you fail to backup your photo files (and other important data) because your hard drive will fail. Just like that cuddly, cute kitten will soon become a smug adult cat that ignores you except when you’re in the middle of something urgent.

“Never have I found the limits of the photographic potential. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance.”—W. Eugene Smith

The following is something people tell me when I suggest using a plug-in or specialized software for enhancing or retouching portraits: “But you can do that in Photoshop!” That’s because when it comes to software for wedding, portrait, and boudoir photographs, everyone has an opinion—sometimes a strong one—even if they’re wrong.

Street photography—walking around with a camera, poised to capture life on the fly—has never been more popular than it is now. Back in the day, masters like Alfred Eisenstaedt and Henri Cartier-Bresson prowled the streets with classic film-based Leica rangefinders, but today most street shooters opt for modern digital cameras.

It's that time again when Shutterbug's editors and writers pick the best cameras and lenses of the year.

Few things are as exciting as using a brand new lens for the first time. To photographers, a new lens is like an empty canvas to an artist, or a fresh storyline to a novelist. Fortunately, despite the unsettled tenor of the world situation, 2020 has witnessed an outstanding and diverse collection of exceptional lenses.

Shutterbug once again worked with EISA, the world’s largest independent collection of magazines and websites focusing on consumer electronics, to select the ten best lenses of 2020. Here are our choices. As a voting member of EISA, Shutterbug helped choose these outstanding lenses, which we feel are the best you can buy right now.

Our choices for the ten best lenses you can buy in 2020 run the gamut from super wideangle to super telephoto, and one thing is certain: not one of them will disappoint you. So, take a look at our choices for the ten best lenses of 2020 below (with links to where you can purchase them) and find something amazing to start shooting with today.