Bershatsky

Category: Reviews

Sigma 45mm f2.8 for L Mount (on the Panasonic S1R) – Review

If I had to sum up the review of this lens in one word, it would be “meh.” It’s sharp enough at f/4 and higher, but at f/2.8 the lens is soft and disappointing – especially as you get closer to your subject. Build wise, it feels cheap and extremely light. It’s a decent lens, ...

Think Tank Retrospective 7 V2.0 – What Really Fits?

Every review I looked for on the Think Tank Retrospective 7 v.2, was less than helpful. Actually, they were awful. So bad in fact, that I had to make my own video. All I wanted to know was does an iPad Pro 2018 12.9″ fit with a pro level DSLR. Yes it does! You don’t ...

Memorial Day Fun and a Review of the Ricoh GR III

5/28/2019 update. This entire review was done on the default firmware 1.0 that shipped with the camera. I found out after my initial review, that there have been two minor firmware updates. I’ll need to do a follow up article in the following weeks to come with the newest updated firmware. I’ve been using the ...

ON1 Photo RAW 2019.5 Review – Can it replace Lightroom and Photoshop?

Disclaimer: ON1 provided me with a fully licensed copy of Photo RAW 2019.5 for me to give an unbiased and full review. Photo RAW 2019.5 has a really impressive feature set, but is plagued with performance issues. That being said, I use it as my desktop catalog – it does a fantastic job with that. ...

iPhone Xs Max Camera Review

Recently, I upgraded to the iPhone Xs Max. There’s a million reviews out there about the phone and camera specs, so instead, I prefer to look at real world photos. Most of these were shot with the default camera app, but a few were shot with Lightroom in DNG mode. Also, most of these photos ...

Nikon D300S Review – A DSLR on the Cheap

The point of this review is to see what can be done with an older and inexpensive DSLR and lens. The most expensive piece of equipment used in this review was my iPhone to edit the video and process the images. Unfortunately, the camera shoots videos in the now obsolete AVI format which caused it ...

Puyallup Spring Fair & Panasonic S1R and 24-105mm f/4

Even though the S1R is weather sealed, I used one of these: http://fotosharp.com/original_camera_rain_covers.html. It covered most of the camera, but not the lens when fully extended. Rain got on the extended parts of the lens and I was concerned as the zoomed lens retracted fearing that water would get trapped inside. Fortunately, everything was fine. ...

Weyerhaeuser Bonsai Museum and Rhododendron with the Fuji 16mm f/2.8 brief review.

Spring is happening, so it was a great time to get out and enjoy the sights. This was my first outing with the Fuji 16mm f/2.8 and while it’s a nice little lens, it’s not like the f/1.4 version in terms of it’s close focusing ability. According to the specs on B&H the minimum focus ...

Sony a9 and Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM Lens Review – When Shooting Karate Events

The karate school that I attend has over three hundred students. It’s a very busy school with classes every day of the week, belt tests quarterly (for those that have earned their stripes), and a couple of in house tournaments a year. With that many students, it takes a lot of volunteerism to help the ...

The 2018 iPad Pro is a Pain in the iOS – review, tips, tricks, workarounds, and recommended apps.

Why Even Get an iPad? That’s a great question, and one that I’m not even sure I have a good answer to. I guess it’s because it’s light weight, portable, convenient, compact, powerful, responsive, and extremely quick to navigate around and use – unlike a desktop OS. The newest 12.9” iPad Pro that I’m using ...

Nikon Z 6 and 35mm f/1.8 Z Review – Disney New Years Cruise

Intro During the New Years holiday, my family and I went on a Disney cruise to the Caribbean. Throughout the holiday, I shot exclusively with the Nikon Z 6 and the 35mm f/1.8 S lens. I shot this combo both indoors and outdoors, as well as in a variety of different lighting conditions. I shot ...

Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 Review – South Beach Miami Day 2

This was my first outing with the Nikon Z6 and 24-70mm f/4 lens. It’s quite a decent kit lens, but I wouldn’t go out and buy it by itself. It’s really nothing more than a kit lens to be used for travel and casual photography. To that end, it does just fine. Since the widest ...

Cheap Camera Review – Fuji S5 Pro

One hundred and twenty bucks for a top of the line DSLR?!?!? Well, it was top of the line over eleven years ago. Now, you can buy them for little more than a song and a dance. I got this particular one off of Craigslist for $120. Check it out… As you can tell by ...

Senior Photos and a Review of the Godox AD200

I was a better photographer a decade ago. Back then, cameras didn’t have as much dynamic range as the do now. Raw photo editing software couldn’t bring out all of the details that today’s software can. High ISO meant lots of noise. You really had to control the light to get great images. That meant ...

Skylum Aurora HDR 2019 Review

During my email conversations with Skylum staff over the past couple of months, I was offered the opportunity to review their newest HDR software. Since I’m always looking for ways to improve my images, I was more than happy to! Truth be told, I’m not one for HDR editing. I’ve played with it in the ...

Photolemur 3 Review

Photolemur 3 is an automated photo enhancement application with the goal of improving your images with little or no work on your part. To that end, it does work rather well with the caveat that it is rather slow. In this video, I’ll show you a typical workflow and demonstrate the before and and results ...

GoPro Hero 6, GoPro Karma Grip, and Feiyu G6 Review

A video shot on my Panasonic GH5S reviewing the GoPro Hero 6, Karma Grip, and Feiyu G6. Sample footage and photos as well. Shot in 4K / 60p.

Alternatives to Lightroom: PhotoNinja, SILKYPIX, and Luminar 2018 Review

Recently, I contacted the developers of PhotoNinja, SILKYPIX 8 Pro, and Luminar 2018. When I asked to review their software, all of them were very kind, and provided me with full copies for review. Here is my unbiased review of each of them, the pros, the cons, what I liked, and didn’t like. Since Lightroom. Capture ...

Lutify.Me Review – 3D LUTS in Capture One

Always on the lookout for ways to make my photo editing better and easier, I found a company call Lutify.Me. They specialize in LUTs (look up tables) for photo and video, but what piqued my curiosity was this page here. They advertise using LUTs in Capture One. They’ve basically created custom ICC profiles for Capture ...

Darkroom – Photo Editor for iPhone Review

In my never ending quest of looking for the perfect photo editing app for on the go, I recently bought Darkroom. Is it perfect? Sadly, no. However, it’s less expensive than Adobe Lightroom and VSCO X. It’s also quite good for what it is – albeit with some bugs and oversights. Check out the video ...

35mm Mirrorless Lens Shootout – Sony, Fuji, Zeiss, and Olympus – Which is the best 35mm lens?

In this video, I’ll be doing a shootout of 9 different mirrorless lenses with a 35mm (or equivalent focal length). The goal is to determine which one has the nicest rendering. I test for up close shots which I really like doing, bokeh quality, and sharpness/detail from a distance. Here’s the following lenses and bodies ...