PhotographyBanzai.com

Using a computer screen or TV as a backdrop is a fun way to spice up your indoor photography and videography work. In the related video I experiment with using a 19″ IPS LCD screen as the background in a few situations like miniature diorama photography with Legos, as a backdrop for a book, and adding interest to photos of  Karuta playing cards . I also filmed a few quick video sequences using a “Lazy Susan” to spin around a product for b-roll clips.  Links are potentially affiliated in this article, I earn from qualifying purchases!  Even a small 19" screen can work alright. My related YouTube video about this project. For equipment I was using a Canon EOS M5 with a Sigma 56mm f1.4 DC DN lens. That focal length gave me enough of a narrow field-of-view that I could work with such a small computer monitor. If you try this out and use a larger screen you should have more flexibility in focal lengths. Here are a few examples of what can be achieved… If you want your own se...

I’m down to around 800GB on my two main 10 TB external hard drives besides all of the other miscellaneous drives I’ve collected over the years. That’s a combination of photos and video projects I’ve saved over the years. For the two large drives, I mirror the data by hand. It’s fine, but I want to improve the situation. Here is my video on the subject. The video projects are taking up the majority of the space. Even when I record mostly in 1080p, it still adds up fast. A single project can range from 15 to 50 gigabytes. Why save most of the footage and photos? I often reference past work. There are many videos where I pull a clip of some camera I owned at one point or something I had hands-on time with. I can even go back and reference the footage to see some feature of a piece of gear I looked at in a hands-on video. My YouTube channel isn’t huge, but I get a fair amount of questions through comments and Instagram/twitter messages. Sometimes I might upload videos to Amazon Prime Video...

I haven’t used micro 4/3rds cameras besides handling them for a short amount of time. Take that into consideration with my opinion here. Obviously, there are a huge amount of quality tools available for a lot of different use cases in this system. That said, this is not a good year for micro four thirds.  Links are potentially affiliated in this article, I earn from qualifying purchases!  Olympus announced that they will have their imaging division “carved out” by a private equity firm called JIP ( Japan Industrial Partners, Inc ). It will happen around September 2020.  Their website doesn’t suggest an expertise in photographic equipment… JIP is difficult to find information on, but they took over Sony VAIO computers . We can see how that went. They appear to still exist, but certainly not at the level VAIO computers were. Moving forward, I don’t have high hopes for Olympus cameras and lenses under JIP ownership. It reminds me a little bit of what happened with Pentax wh...

I’ve been wanting to try an all-in-one lens that has a full range of decently wide to full telephoto capability. That way when I don’t feel like bringing two cameras to make a video I can use the single lens with a camera like the Canon EOS M50. Knowing me I wanted to go as cheap as possible so I found it being sold on KEH bargain rated used for lens than half of the retail price. This is the EF mount version.  The lens adapted to EF-M. UPDATE: This lens is a bad option for adapting to EF-M. It has connection issues or some type of firmware issue. A video confirming issues I had adapting the lens… My related video on this lens. If you are curious about this lens, then check it out through my links (make sure you get the right lens for your camera mount because it is offered in Canon EF, Nikon F, and Sony A mounts): Used on KEH , B&H , Amazon , Best Buy , Walmart , and eBay .  As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases!  The M50 in video mode from...

I wanted to talk a bit about how things are going and some of my plans. My most popular videos on YouTube lately are the hands-on camera gear videos filmed at Camera Craft in Rockford Illinois. Thanks to the shop for allowing me to handle the cameras and record footage there.  What the channel looks like on YouTube. This simple unassuming gear video recorded at the camera shop is currently my most popular video on the channel. That collaboration doesn’t allow for super detailed videos, but based on feedback and popularity, I think those videos are truly helpful to people. I do want to continue with that. I don’t know when I’ll be able to make more of those videos again with the COVID-19 situation. Even if things are slowly opening up, it doesn’t mean the virus has gone away. The shop is open now as long as you wear a mask, so I could ask the owner what’s possible, but right now it doesn’t feel fair to them and people I live around to increase my contact with others (staff and espec...