News

Instant photography is enjoying a resurgence among both young snapshooters and even some pros, with several makers — from established brands to startups — offering cameras and films to scratch that instant itch. Most photo buffs know the Polaroid story; how the company went bankrupt and is now operating as essentially a brand licensing company putting the Polaroid name on everything from TVs to Blu-Ray players to tablets to, yes, cameras and film. 

Christiaan van Heijst is a Senior First Officer flying Boeing for Cargolux, one of Europe’s major cargo airlines. And as you can see from these amazing photographs, he’s also a very accomplished photographer.

Joe McNally learned the value of supplementing available light with flash early on in his career as a photojournalist. Currently a Nikon Ambassador who works mainly as a commercial/editorial portrait photographer, McNally has become a staunch advocate for the use of Nikon Speedlights on location, often using these small flashes off camera in multiple lighting setups. McNally even mixes his Speedlights with studio strobes on occasion when the situation warrants.

If there were a Photokina Award for the greatest number of cool new products by an American manufacturer, GoPro would certainly be in the running. The innovative folks that put action cams on the map unveiled two new Hero5 cameras and their first-ever drone, along with some interesting accessories. 

Venus Optics is a Chinese lens manufacturer that has been producing some unique and highly regarded lenses under its Laowa brand. But their new 24mm f/14 Relay 2X Macro lens, previewed at Photokina, may have changed the meaning of “unique” forever—at least as far as optics are concerned. 

Arguably, the biggest camera news at this year’s photokina show in Cologne, Germany was the announcement of the new Fujifilm GFX, a medium format mirrorless camera, which was unveiled to much fanfare on Monday. Shutterbug was one of a handful of media outlets to get our hands on a prototype of the 51.4-megapixel GFX and try it out for about half an hour in a conference room at the show.

PocketWizard has just made their FlexTT5 TTL radio remote system available to users of Panasonic’s mirrorless cameras. When used with the Panasonic DMW-FL360L and DMW-FL580L flash units, the FlexTT5 TTL enables a full range of flash sync speeds up to 1/8000.