Going Macro For Less- For this article, I'm using a Standard 50mm Lens as an example and test bed for the filter and lens. For those of you who can't afford, or better yet don't want to afford, a dedicated macro lens- this article is for you. There are a couple different ways to go about avoiding the purchase of a sometimes pretty expensive dedicated macro lens for your DSLR arsenal. Namely there are two common ways: Turn your lens around backwards and use an adapter to mount it to your camera, or buy a dedicated macro filter to screw onto the front of your lens. Personally I prefer the latter, and I'll explain why in more detail as we go along here.  One way in particular I find even better than just screwing on filter to your 50mm Standard lens. 

The Hot Shoe Diaries is Joe McNally's latest book and follows on from the success of his internationally acclaimed book, The Moment It Clicks. As the title suggests it is a book which focuses on small flashes, strobes or Speedlights if you will. Now some of you might wonder why on earth I am reviewing a book by a self professed "Nikon guy", well Joe McNally is pretty much the man when it comes to flash photography, and small flash photography in particular.

As a result this book, whilst biased slightly towards Nikon (it is what Joe shoots with after all) is a must read for anyone who wants to learn how to use their flashes to better effect. I know there is a large amount of interest in wireless flash photography on AlphaMountWorld and as a result it seemed appropriate to review the book.

The A900 is an excellent hi-sensitivity machine. Capitalizing on retaining more color and dynamic range throughout the entire ISO range than most of its competition, the A900 manages this excellent performance characteristic for much less cost than its best rivals. What doesn't get talked about much when it comes to higher sensitivity settings is color output and print quality when processing is debated. Sure "some" companies work more noise reduction in the chroma category into their processing as well as make a bit nicer grain pattern, but does that translate into better prints? Color wise, no, it doesn't.
Raw software, ISO debates, who needs it? Lets have some fun using our A900 for Jpeg output and see what we can do.

Hello all. Lately, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the photography market in general, and with your permission I'd like to expound a bit now about the DSLR market. Call this a sort of ... expose rant of my feelings that I'd like to share with you, so here I go. While sitting comfortably on my couch tonight sipping a glass of my favorite 'Rodney Strong', reading my March issue of Popular Photography, I came across an ...interesting article. I read this article thoroughly three times. And each time that I read it, I couldn't help but to let escape a bit of a confused smirk cross my face. Afterwards I sat back with my wine and relaxed for a moment, and in my head pinpointed the source of that little smirk.