Manual Focus


The Photography Blog







The Photography Blog

Photographic Field Guides
Practical Philosophies
Careers and Ideas
Good Gear
Inspiring Journeys
Inspiration and information to help you make the most of your photographic journey”

Manual Focus


The Photography Blog

Priorities

Priorities

In the space of a fortnight I've had the same story told to me by two different people, both of whom are very talented with a camera. They went to a workshop to learn new skills and came away with less control over their camera and creativity. They were forced to shoot fully manual and ended up moving away from their best creativity instead of towards it.


Rokinon 14mm DS T3.1 CineLens

Rokinon 14mm DS T3.1 CineLens

A seriously affordable astro photography lens to help you chase stars, auroras and ultra wide landscapes.


Light and Lovely Macro

Light and Lovely Macro

Few people take full advantage of extension tubes, but they are affordable, light and easy to use. Turn your telephoto zoom into a macro lens within seconds and explore the world of all things small.


Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 - Long Term Review

Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 - Long Term Review

This is a hard lens to leave at home. It delivers quality and sharpness for landscapes and the night sky, plus has a neat party trick with rear pocket for ND filters. Worthy companion to any full-frame mirrorless camera. (Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN)


The Absolute Best Lens in Nepal

The Absolute Best Lens in Nepal

Very rarely a new lens comes along that changes how I think about photography. This is one of those lenses. My priority for glass is always quality over convenience, but this time you get enough of both to make it a hard one to walk past. The newly released "DG Vario-Summilux 10-25mm f/1.7 ASPH" by Panasonic+Leica is not only a great lens for MFT systems, but may well be good enough to tempt full frame owners to look seriously at adopting the smaller mirrorless format of the Lumix G series.


Gear is good - Vision is better

Gear is good - Vision is better

Wise words from David du Chemin have made this website something of a success story. David's nuggets of wisdom are liberally sprinkled across the PixelatedImage Blog, along with PDF e-books priced at just $5 each.


Auroras and The Lumix G9

Auroras and The Lumix G9

Big auroras with a very small camera. The key is choosing the right lens, something ultra wide and ideally with fully manual operation.


EF to L-Mount Adaptor by Fotodiox

EF to L-Mount Adaptor by Fotodiox

This is an alternative to the Sigma MC21 that lets you mount Canon EF lenses onto your new Lumix S-series bodies such as the S1R and S1H. The short version of this review is that they work just fine for AF lenses and represents excellent value.


S-E100 F2.8 Macro for L-Mount

S-E100 F2.8 Macro for L-Mount

The S-E100 F2.8 Macro lens for L-Mount has just been released by LUMIX, and it’s very different to anything I’ve used on a mirrorless system before. It’s a super compact lens for super small subjects, but delivers super-sized performance and in particular the Autofocus is on a whole other level.


Review: Lumix GM1

Review: Lumix GM1

I loved the GX7 released by Lumix last year, and recently I got a closer look at the teeny little brother GM1. It's so small it's crazy, but in a good way.


Custom Settings for the LUMIX G9II

Custom Settings for the LUMIX G9II

I've prepared an outline of my custom setup for the LUMIX G9II, plus a copy of my settings ready to download to your camera and customise for your own needs. A great way to get started and try some of the various features built into this amazing little MFT body.


Nikon D600 Review

Nikon D600 Review

Professional image quality in a budget package. In many ways the D600 is better than the D800, it's the camera a lot of Nikon owners have been waiting for.